*BEGS FOR FORGIVENESS*

Yes, it needed capitals. I am the worst author ever. I seem to have fallen out of the TW fandom - so if anyone would like to recommend to me any really good preferably Janto fics I would be most appreciative.

Also, this chapter's probably a bit scrappy, but I didn't want to leave you guys waiting any longer. But do feel free to point out any mistakes and such.

Oh, and this is alllll flashback.

Warnings: more swearing than usual, bad grammar and 51st century morals.

PREVIOUSLY: (also in a flashback :P) having been left by the Doctor, Ianto meets Agent Vorn, who takes him to a warehouse where Proffessor Heimgard - random scientist - sticks a metal thing onto his forehead and...

With the small part of his mind that was still coherent he briefly wondered if this was what dying felt like, until he realised that it wasn't.

This felt much, much worse.

And then Ianto didn't feel at all, because Ianto was gone, and someone else entirely was sitting in his place.

Chapter 36

Tony Migitario woke up, blinked, and promptly became very confused. Mostly this was because he was wearing clothes that weren't his, sitting a lab he was sure he hadn't entered, staring at two people he didn't recognize.

The man was tall and very muscular, the kind of build who usually kicked Tony's backside when he got into a fight. He was also gorgeous: not Tony's usual type, but attractive nonetheless with those amber eyes and slicked back blonde hair. The woman on the other hand was small, almost petite with a scholarly air about her. Her light brown hair was tucked up into a bun onto of her head, her dark blue eyes peering curiously at him. Both of them looked to be in their late twenties, but in that way that said that age had been bought in a gel and rubbed into their faces for the last ten years or so. Tony knew that look well; his Mam had used the stuff religiously to look 30, whilst his Mother had been happy to age naturally, joking that soon enough people would accuse her of being a cradle-snatcher.

They'd both looked their age when he'd had to identify the bodies.

Quickly enough Tony felt the familiar anger begin to course through him, adding to the confusion he was already suffering from and building into a heady mix.

And then he noticed the woman had a hand on his face.

"What the fuck?" he cried out, causing a look of alarm to pass over the strangers faces before he jumped up and pushed passed them both until he was standing in his own space, eyes wild as he took in his situation.

"Wasn't he was supposed to black out?" the woman asked the other man, both of them now entirely ignoring him.

"You're the expert," the man replied, sounding the much calmer of the two. "That's why I asked you here."

"And I told you I'd never done a full personality transfer before! There are laws against this kind of thing!"

"I thought nobody even believed it was possible."

"They don't, and they still made laws against it; now what does that tell you?" the woman practically hissed.

"You told him the Agency did this sort of thing all the time."

"Sort of thing, yes. Same thing, no."

"You're the one who lied," accussed the man.

"Hey!" Tony tried to interrupt pointedly.

He was ignored again.

"You're the one who asked me to."

"You didn't have to come."

"Of course I did." The woman huffed. "You would have blown his brains out!"

Tony could hear her frustration mounting, but he was fairly sure it was nowhere near his own levels yet - especially considering that last statement.

"Sure it wasn't because I said please?" the man leered in reply. "You could never resist when I beg-"

"Oh piss-"

"Oi!" Tony shouted in yet another attempt to bring the situation back under his control. "I asked a question!"

"Yes Vorn, the nice man asked a question, why don't you answer it?"

Vorn bit out a false smile at the lady (who promptly stalked off to another part of the lab) before turning back to Tony.

"Of course I'll answer all your questions Mr. Migitario. Please excuse my colleague; she hasn't been getting any recently."

Tony began to calm down slightly at the promise of answers, and resisted a smirk at the comment, not missing the way the woman glared over at them – there was definitely some history between these two.

"Tell me Mr. Migitario," continued the man as he swept a fallen lock of hair back behind his eyes. And it was then that Tony realised that what he'd thought was simply a bracelet around his wrist was actually a Vortex Manipulator, which couldn't mean anything good. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Tony blinked. "I…what?"

"Where were you before you were here? What were you thinking about?"

"They're dead." Tony blurted out before he could stop himself. Granted that the Agency probably knew anyway, but it was personal. Although it wasn't a lie; it had most certainly been the last think he'd thought about.

"Yes; Evlyn and Tullen Migitario, your parents. What else? What about more recently?"

But Tony wasn't listening anymore; he was thinking about that damned day again. He was always thinking about it, even though it had been a year ago now. It was the first thing he thought when he woke up in the mornings in the filthy motels he'd been bunking in since he'd lost everything. It was what he'd been thinking about when he'd submitted an application to the Time Agency, what he'd been thinking about when he'd received a reply; a request to come in to the Agency's main on-planet base to be interviewed. It was what he'd been thinking about when he'd gone through the red light at the crossroads until there'd been a sickening crunch and he'd thought no more.

"Holy fuck…" Tony staggered backwards into the table. "There was an accident…I remember…I thought I was dead!"

Vorn smiled reassuringly.

"You were for a little while there; and what do they do when you're dead Mr. Migitario?"

Tony grabbed hold of the table for balance and slowly pulled himself upright as the pieces started to click together.

"They take a mindprint for the memory banks, so that if the Agency needs to use your memories they can, even though you're dead."

"Good. See, you're remembering."

Tony looked up just in time to see the other stranger, the woman, roll her eyes from where she was mixing chemicals a few tables over. He didn't like that look.

"But I'm alive."

"Yes." Vorn was starting to sound frustrated. "They took a mindprint, but then they managed to bring you back."

Tony looked down at his silk shirt clad torso.

"This ain't my body."

"Well no; your body's still partially paralysed Tony – can I call you Tony? – and your interview with the Agency is tomorrow. Obviously we can't interview you if you can't walk or talk properly, and the Assessors are very busy people, so it's not like they can just reschedule. But we didn't want you to miss out, so we simply took your mindprint and downloaded it into a new body for the time being."

Tony looked down again at the body he now possessed and wiggled his fingers in astonishment.

"Huh. I didn't think you could do that."

"Morally, legally and officially we can't yet Tony. The technology's very new, and even most of the Agency doesn't know of its existence. So that means that whilst you're being interviewed you must not mention what happened to anyone. If asked, you simply thought it time for a new look, and if you see anyone you knew before, you ignore them. Is that clear?"

"I can't talk to my friends?" he asked incredulously. He didn't exactly have many friends left, but the thought of being entirely cut away made him feel cold. "Can't I let them know I'm good?"

"No."

"Why?"

Vorn speared him with his amber eyes.

"This is what you signed up for when you applied to the Agency Tony."

"I didn't actually expect you to get back to me! Everyone knows you guys have fucked up recruitment methods! I didn't think…" and he hadn't, not for one second. What would the Agency want with a fuck-up like him? A man who couldn't hold a job more than a week, even in a small community like the Lapso one where everyone helped each other out, especially since the Sontarans had come from the sky and killed half of them. But he'd been useless, and everywhere he'd looked there'd been pity mixed with disgust. 'Orphaned,' some of them had whispered sympathetically. 'Pathetic,' sneered others. 'Half the Community lost their lives and he's wasting his!'

"I was so angry; I just wanted outta that damn place!" Where there were still scorch marks on the walls from the invasion, and every time he saw them all he could see were two burnt bodies tangled together, both looking their age. And by God had it made him mad, both with grief and anger.

"And that's exactly what we're looking for." Vorn cut across his thoughts. "You're still angry, and you still want to get away, and we can offer you what you want. A universe to explore, endless stars to stare at and opportunities to take. A new life every few weeks and a chance to be somebody else. And no one will judge you for being you; all you have to do is leave them all behind. Is that clear?" Vorn repeated, voice almost chilling in its intensity.

Tony nodded, because that was exactly what he wanted.

TWDWTWDW

A little while later, after the lady – Professor Heimgard as Tony had learned, no first name given even when he'd flirted – had poked, prodded, tested and scanned his new body and brain far too many times, he was finally given the all-clear. And that was when Tony realised he had no idea where he was, or what he was supposed to be doing for this interview he supposedly had tomorrow. It had seemed like the Time Agent had answered his questions at the time, but now it was quite obvious he hadn't. The Agency was slippery like that.

"What-" he began, only to be cut off by Vorn slapping him on the back.

"You're done then; off we go." He said, no explanations offered as he grabbed Tony's hand and placed it on top of his Vortex Manipulator. "Hold on tight."

"Wait-"

"Hey!" This time it was Heimgard interrupting. "I want him in for a check-up in two days time!"

"Yes mother," Vorn retaliated, grabbing a small bag he hadn't noticed before sitting casually on a workbench. Before Tony could even begin to form another protest the other man was pushing buttons on his wrist-strap and the world vanished from underneath their feet.

When they re-materialised there was a cream coloured carpet rapidly approaching his face.

"Fuck!" Tony cried out seconds before he hit the floor, and was just able to get his arms braced before he landed on his face.

"Whoops," came a voice from above him, sounding much more put together than his own had been.

Slowly Tony rolled over and began shoving himself to his knees, ignoring the vicious pain that suddenly shot through his head and glaring rather obviously at the Agent who'd just teleported him without warning.

"I did tell you to hold on tight," was his only reply.

"We couldn't have walked?" he asked angrily.

"No, would have taken several days. And I needed to see if you could survive travelling through the Vortex unshielded."

Tony blinked as he processed that. "Wait, survived? You mean that coulda killed me!"

Vorn looked at him in that 'yeah, so what?' way he'd learnt most Time Agents used a lot simply because that was their natural reaction to most things. He'd always wondered what had made them so callous: now he dreaded finding out.

Slowly however Vorn's face became more compassionate as Tony continued to kneel, his forehead furrowed in pain until the other man stuck out a hand in offering. He grabbed it and let himself be slowly pulled back up until they were face to face again – or at least as much as they could be considering the extra few inches the Agent had on this body.

Without warning Vorn flashed a penlight into his eye.

"Ow!" Tony cried out, recoiling both in shock and pain, but he didn't get very far considering Vorn had yet to let go of his arm.

"Here, swallow this," the other man said, pulling him closer again whilst reaching into his pocket with the other arm and pulling out a small tablet.

"What's that?" Tony asked warily.

"Painkiller; will cure that headache of yours, common enough reaction to travelling by one of these-" he tapped his Vortex Manipulator "-the first few times."

Tony stared at the innocuous tablet for a few more seconds before slowly, cautiously reaching out to take the thing. He was surprised by its powdery texture.

"You never seen one of those before?" Vorn asked.

Tony shook his head, still staring.

"They only have hyper-injections in Lapso."

"Same in most places now; tablets' have been obsolete for several centuries, but the Agency still uses them because Customs get iffy about taking needles into neutral territories; say someone could get hurt or something!"

At that Vorn abruptly began to laugh; a high pitched giggle which entirely took over him for several minutes. Tony could only assume it was some kind of private joke, and looking at Vorn's very well muscled and heavily armed form, he could begin to see what it might be.

Whilst the Agent was otherwise preoccupied Tony swallowed the tablet, and took a chance to survey the room. It looked very much like a hotel room; bed, table, kitchenette to one side, a door which he presumed led to an en-suite bathroom, and the necessary pictures of the sea-side. It was also a bit yellow.

Suddenly Vorn's laughter cut off and he asked: "Are you done?" as if he had been waiting for Tony to finish.

Tony just nodded.

"At least you haven't thrown up: there may be hope for you yet."

And just like that the concern that had been briefly present fled, and Tony's utter confusion reared its head again.

"What's going on now then?"

"This is your stop."

"Huh?"

"It's your hotel room."

Tony looked around at the homely yellow room and frowned.

"I didn't book this."

"Well no, you were in a coma, so I took the liberty."

"Oh, well thanks and all that, but I can't pay for this."

Unexpectedly Vorn laughed again, a deep and chuckling thing that sounded more like it should belong to an old man nursing a pint and smoking a cigar than to a relatively young Time Agent. He was starting to form the opinion that this Agent was slightly cracked.

"Who said you needed to?"

It took Tony a second to cotton on. Vorn just smirked.

"Rule Number Four of the Time Agency; if you're not forced to pay: don't."

"I've been living by that for a while already." Tony grinned back. " Any other rules I should know about?"

"Rule Number One: the universe doesn't give two hoots about logic, so don't expect it to. Rule Number Three: have lots of sex, but don't litter your sprogs around the Timestream otherwise you might become your own granddaddy. Although Rule One often prevents that being a problem. If the Agency accepts you you'll be given a shot preventing you from receiving or giving all known diseases – sexually transmitted or otherwise. Don't want you getting the Black Death, or starting it."

The Agent stopped then, as if waiting for him to say something, but what the hell was one meant to say to that?

"Wait, what's rule number two?"

Vorn hesitated. "You don't want to know." And he promptly changed the subject. "I'll pick you up tomorrow then; your alarm's already set and there's an outfit for you here…"

At this he started rifling through the bag Tony had noticed him grab, a bag which looked quite worn as well as retro – or maybe not retro, factoring Time Travel into that equation. After a few seconds he pulled out a deep blue silk shirt and chucked it onto the bed.

"Wear that shirt tomorrow with what you've got on now and you'll be fine. There's clean underwear and toiletries in here." Vorn did the bag back up and it followed the shirt onto the bed.

Tony frowned at it. The shirt was almost a match for the red one he was currently wearing, the one that wasn't his. And the bag quite obviously wasn't Vorn's (who was sporting a sort of shiny black camouflage for some reason he couldn't quite work out) so that meant…

"Whose bag…whose stuff is this?" he asked anyway.

Vorn looked at him. "His," he replied, gesturing firmly towards Tony's body.

Tony thought about that for a second.

"Who is he?"

"Not your problem."

"I'm in his body! I think it kinda fucking is!"

There was a pause, and then:

"Would you rather be in somebody else's body?" Vorn leered, and Tony realised there was no way he was going to get a proper answer, especially when the Agent was looking at him with those big amber eyes and that pretty face, turning up his pheromones in that annoying way Time Agents were somehow able to, and quite obviously expecting him to blush, back off and let the man leave.

So he didn't. Instead he stalked over to the other man, pushed him back against the wall (Vorn might have been a mountain of muscle, but Tony had the element of surprise) and proceeded to thoroughly ravish his mouth for a good few minutes. It was going extremely well until he moved down towards the Agent's pulse point and the man decided to talk.

"We shouldn't," Vorn breathed – sounding annoyingly composed – into the air, pushing Tony back slightly to lend some sort of credence to his words, even when the slight bulge in his trousers said differently.

"Why the fuck not? This some other messed up rule you haven't told me about?"

"No, just…not your body."

Tony looked down at himself, at arms that were a shade lighter than usual, a body just a little bit slimmer, feet a few sizes smaller…

"It is now."

Vorn shook his head. "You're borrowing it."

"I'm sure he won't mind."

"I think he will. I won't do that to him."

"He a friend of yours?"

"No."

"So it's not your problem."

"I promised I'd look after him."

"Oh for fuck's sake- I'll just find someone else who doesn't know then!" Tony cried out, frustrated (in several ways) beyond belief. But before he could move away Vorn grabbed his arm.

"No you won't, because it wouldn't be right and you know it. He didn't consent to this."

"I thought you guys didn't have morals! Brilliant time to find some. Bloody hell, my own body's half paralysed you said; it'll be ages 'til I get laid."

"Not my fault."

"Yeah it is. Who is this guy anyway?" he asked again, even though asking it before has lead to this exact situation. "What kind of idiot lets someone use his body like this? If he'd consent to this I'm sure he'd consent to some backseat sex."

For a second Tony could have sworn that the Time Agent looked guilty, and promptly stepped back away from those delicious pheromones.

"Wait, this fucker did consent to have me running round his head right?"

There was a pause.

"Not exactly."

"Bloody hell." Tony ran a hand through his – no, somebody else's hair. "You shoulda lied to me; I did not want to know that!"

Vorn just stared at him, cool and blank as always, decidedly not looking like he was being denied fantastic sex, or had just been snogged rather well if Tony did say so himself. The perfect antithesis to his own character. He was going to be a rubbish Time Agent.

"You at least gonna pay the guy?"

"In manner of speaking."

"Fuck. Thought you said you promised to look after him."

"I am," replied Vorn as he pushed off the wall, moving towards and then out of the door. "Go get a cold shower."

"Go fuck yourself!" Tony shouted down the corridor at his retreating back, but did as he was told anyway.

It was awkward, as now he felt guilty even just innocently undressing the body he was in. Afterwards though he stared at himself in the mirror for a long time.

The Other Man – as Tony had started thinking of him – had a solemn face containing strangely old blue eyes, a high forehead and a rather cute nose. Dark brown hair was starting to curl around his ear, and he was in surprisingly good shape considering the boyish like quality he still seemed to possess. He wondered what this guy could possibly have done to have ended up playing host to somebody else's consciousness. Whatever it was, it must have really pissed the Time Agency off.

Tony sighed. "Who are you?" he asked the mirror wretchedly.

As expected, the Other Man didn't reply.

TBC

I hope it's been worth the wait and wasn't too confusing; as always concrit and reviews would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for sticking with me!