Heart and Soul – Secrets and Lies.

Chapter 54

Ianto watched as John began to punch information into his wrist strap. He raised his finger to initiate the jump when all three of them were engulfed with a massive flash of orange light. Suddenly his brain felt like it was going to explode. His vision filled with star bursts of every colour in the known universe and some he could swear did not exist. An intense sharp pain hit him at the back of his neck and put his hands to his head and crashed to his knees.

Swept up in the energy Owen watched as Ianto cried out and fell to his knees, on his other side he saw John frantically trying to punch in sequences on his wrist strap. As the haze cleared it didn't take a genius to work out they were not in any wood he could discern, there were no trees for a start.

They were in some kind of over grown open pasture land along with a stunned young boy who was surrounded by several sheep. The boy pointed and began to gibber unintelligibly towards them.

"Where is the wood?" Owen shouted at him as he grabbed the lapels on John's jacket.

"Not my fault, not my fault," John desperately tried to tell him. Owen ground his teeth as he pushed John away and hurried to assist Ianto who was on the ground on all fours.

"Are you Ok?" Owen asked Ianto as he helped him to his feet.

"This was not my fault, not-my-fault," John kept repeating looking desperately around trying to gauge where they were.

"I can't see," Ianto said as he staggered a few steps then sat down putting his head between his knees.

"Shit!" Owen burst out and kneeled down next to him.

"Can't see as in blind?" Owen asked.

"Not blind, blinded all I can see is these star bursts of intense colours and my brain is feels like it's on fire," Ianto explained.

"What happened John?" Owen demanded as he lifted Ianto's chin checking his eyes.

"It wasn't me, I swear," John told them panic in his voice.

Ianto reached out and managed to catch Owen's arm, "He's right Owen, I was watching him, he never completed the sequence on his wrist strap."

"So where and when the hell are we and what the fuck happened?" Owen demanded again.

"I have no idea where we are. All I can see is a large group of standing stones," John said looking around still fiddling with his vortex manipulator in a growing panic.

Owen burst out with a string of expletives as he glanced around to see they were in the center of The Standing Stones of Emin.

"I gather from your outburst you know where we are?" Ianto asked.

"You'd know where we were too if you could see Ianto, you've been studying the bloody things all year," Owen told him.

"What! How! JOHN,"Ianto called out.

"We'll deal with him a minute, how many fingers am I holding up," Owen asked Ianto as he held up three fingers.

Ianto squinted, "Eight," he replied as Owen swore.

"John," Ianto shouted out fear distorting his voice.

"Not sure not sure," John said a shake in his voice as he still tried to get some response from his manipulator.

"Oh god," Ianto cried out as another star burst of colours hit his vision, less intense this time.

"How many fingers now?" Owen asked as held up his entire hand.

"Five," Ianto replied squinting, "but they're purple with green specks?" he added.

"We're where?" Ianto asked again as the whirl of colours started to fade and he could concentrate.

"Ianto we are in the middle of The Standing Stones of Emin", Owen told him bluntly, he was about to say something as he saw John start turning around in panic.

"No,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no," John repeated over and over again. He grabbed Ianto bringing him to his feet, his normal arrogant non-chalance replaced with sick terror.

"We're over a 100 miles out, she's dead… worse than dead." He pushed Ianto away from him staggered three steps then took hold of one of the stones for support.

Refusing Owen's assistance Ianto staggered across to John trying to bring him into focus, and pulled him around by the shoulders, "We have five days, we can still make it, use your vortex manipulator, make something up, tell him I'm injured , tell him we've been delayed," Ianto told him urgently.

"I can't," John screamed at him. "The matrix is drained. It will take days, weeks for it to recharge. It's useless, beyond its most basic functions." He grabbed Ianto again by the top of his arms and shook him. "We can't make it in five days Ianto."

"Listen…100 miles we can make it. If we start right now we almost have five days ," Ianto told him trying to calm him down, "three miles an hour, twelve hours a day, that's 36 miles a day we can make it".

"Even if we could manage to walk 36 miles a day, which I seriously doubt, we still have to find a way in. We will be cutting this very fine. This is a hostile time period, a single delay is all we need and…" John told him wiping his face clear.

"We need to get moving then," Ianto told John as and started to move in the direction of Johns pointed hand.

"How many hours to sunset?" Ianto asked as John consulted his wrist strap. "Six," John replied.

"Right, we can make 20 miles today, come on Owen," Ianto called back at him.

"Will someone tell me what in the name of all hell is going on?" Owen demanded as he moved to catch up with them.

Ianto turned to him. "We have five days, to travel over a 100 miles and rescue Ariana."

"I get the five days and the distance. I mean who is Ariana?" Owen asked confused.

"My sister," John replied his voice shaking, "she's seventeen years old and the only family I have."

"The deal was in five days John has to hand me over in exchange for Ariana or Gray will give her to Anlaf Godwin," Ianto told him as his vision cleared even more and he noted the grass was now green and not red.

Owen looked at them both opened mouthed. "You're just going hand Ianto over and you are going to let him?" Owen spat at them seriously wanting to punch something. "You've gotta know this is a death sentence. Gray will drag you in front of Jack, torture then kill you," he shouted at Ianto.

John turned around and punched him to the ground. "You bastard!" John screamed at him as Ianto pulled him back as Owen edged away. "Do you think I have no sense of honour?" he shouted to Owen's fallen form.

"Sorry Mate, that's not what I meant," Owen said as Ianto held out his hand to help him up.

"I made Jack a solemn promise, an oath, and that oath came at a heavy price," John shouted at him as he took off.

"What is he talking about?" Owen asked Ianto feeling his jaw.

"Jack went willingly, to buy us the time we needed to rescue Ariana." Ianto told him looking at John's retreating back as he pulled Owen aside. "And John's right; as of this moment we're fucked," Ianto said his voice cracking up, "Ariana may as well be dead, and Jack is in hell, and we've got no way of getting either of them out, because I can't see any way this is going to work."

Owen went pale as he realized the implications of what they were saying, "Jesus Christ almighty," he muttered under his breath as both of them raced to catch up with John.

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Jack lay naked on the damp stone floor, curled up on himself trying with every effort he possessed not to make a single movement. A spasm caused his foot to twitch and excruciating agony shot through his feet into his legs. He tried to control the trembling that accompanied the pain without success and for a brief moment he passed out. His brother with dark callous glee had laid out his plan to Jack. Respite via death would not occur, suffering would be his name. It was his one piece of normality being used against him and unless fatally wounded he healed at a normal rate. Now Gray would use it against him to its fullest potential. The beating that followed was not the general beating he had expected, but was to his feet. It had been prolonged and severe and had destroyed all the small bones to splinters.

He opened his eyes and noted the edge of light to his right expanded and something was roughly thrown and landed close by him. He braced himself as the vibrations caused, his feet to twitch and teeth chattered with the agony.

He wondered where his strength to endure had gone. The truth was the man he been had vanished with the first blow. At that moment he realized he had severely underestimated his ability to cope, it had gone, beaten out of him by The Master. He had tried desperately to hold on to his sense of self, but he knew he had nothing left to hold on with. All that was left was a hollow shell filled with terrible pain. A shell who had cast his last remaining hope into the wind of chance and now had nothing left to cling to.

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Owen tried to keep up the pace set by John. They had walked trying to step into a rhythm of walking, that burnt distance So far so good, he was thirsty and a little tired but he knew this was day one, and they had made walked eleven miles.

He cursed the Henge and couldn't figure why for whatever reason it had intervened and brought them here. A further check of John's vortex manipulator the last time they had rested confirmed it had not burnt out, but its current capability had been reduced to a fancy wrist GPS with a calendar function. It meant getting back to their own time would be problematic but considering their current predicament that was the least of their worries.

"What if we steal a horse?" Owen offered trying to catch his breath.

"Can you ride? I can't? Can you?" John asked each of them in turn.

"This is Anglo Saxon England, not the Wild West, Owen, horses are the equivalent of a 21st century Ferrari." Ianto told him.

"Well it was just a thought," Owen grumped.

"What's with the Rocks?" John asked as he still tried to make sense of what had happened.

"The Standing Stones of Emin," Ianto replied and went on to explain the past year and the project as he finished he saw Owen look uncomfortable.

"There's more," Owen told them not sure how either of them was going to take the information he had to share.

"More?" Ianto asked looking at him.

"It's complicated," Owen advised him.

"Complicated?" Ianto repeated.

"Yeah, it's what we discovered," Owen told them as they approached what looked like wide dirt path.

"We discovered? Why do I have feeling this doesn't include me," Ianto saw the look on Owen's face. "I think you had better start," Ianto told him matter-of-factly wondering what was going to be revealed now.

Owen stared at him began to explain about their discoveries and their effect on Ianto.

"So according to you every time I visited I got pinged by this Aeon power. Were you ever going to tell me?" Ianto asked as Owen completed his explanation and looked uncomfortable.

"Aeon power, who came up with that one?" John snorted.

"Tosh came up with the term when we couldn't identify the energy signature," Owen told him.

"Aeon power," Ianto repeated unfamiliar with the term

"Yeah, power emanating from a supreme being," he tried to explain. "We don't, didn't believe it was a malevolent force , all indications suggested the power was benign …" Owen told them.

"All those stories, the one's about the dreaming dragon," Ianto interrupted understanding.

"What" John exclaimed.

"The stones have some interesting legends stories, events, history, healing children," Ianto tried to explain.

"Legends, stories ,events, history!" John spat out as if they were both mad.

"Why, if it's been helping me all year, why would it bring us here, why would it make things so difficult?" Ianto asked bewildered.

"Ianto I have no idea, this is a force we don't understand or even comprehend," Owen replied honestly.

"I understand enough," John snarled, "this Aeon power or whatever you want to call it has screwed us over and left Ariana and Jack in the worst possible position." He spat on the ground, "I curse it to hell and when I can, I will come back and nothing will remain of The Standing stones of Emin except a large gaping smoldering hole in the ground," he said his voice dripping with venom as he picked up his speed and stalked off.

**Authors Note:

Please note: this is a fictional Anglo Saxon England. At times it will mirror Anglo Saxon England and share some characteristic. However, I have used creative license in creating this time for this story. This includes language, for the sake of this story everyone understands modern English. (The bit about the horses is true however.) All distances are in miles.