19

Their surviving pirate was not a happy camper, the fact he had watched his two companions beaten to death was helping him decide that maybe he should cooperate but other than that… pure sulking. Ianto sat opposite him and waited as Jack and John watched, both armed and ready to defend if the man so much as flinched. This he knew as well, carefully watching them like a spooked horse, the whites of his eyes wide.

"So tell me, why."

"We knew the old man was on that bridge, knew we had him and then … then suddenly we are told he is still OK. Bullshit. We killed the Phoenix. We know we did!" the man snarled.

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why kill the Phoenix?" Ianto was calm, icy and polite.

"Well … it's his fault isn't it? Phoenix Project killed all those innocent people, including my mother. We are all children of the lost. We met through a grief camp and that is how we worked all this out." He man said with a defeated look.

"You are stupid… right?" Ianto sighed "You are telling me that your parents were in the experiment and did not survive so as a payback, you devised to kill one to the survivors?"

"What? No. He did it. The Phoenix project, it was his. He killed them!"

"No. No I did not. I was a test subject along with everyone else. My name is Ianto. Ianto Jones, Phoenix was the code name of the experiments. The Phoenix project. Only three survived from the hundreds they tested. I chose to call myself Phoenix so I would never forget the fire and brimstone I walked through to survive." Ianto explained calmly "I did it to piss them off. Me. Look at me. Me. Young, vibrant, me. Each time I die, I reset at the time of my first death. Each time you idiots kill me you simply renew me. Like a phoenix, hence the project's purpose. To create immortals."

"Right. What?" the man sat back and looked at the two men circling like sharks.

"Jack and John are the other two. As you all found one another, so have we. We are the three immortals. The Trinity. We are the ones that got away, escaped and survived only to have you lot trying to kill me because…what… you resent it?" Ianto demanded.

"No. No, no, no, no…. No, we were told… we were told that you were an old man, you did this and…and… shit. Really? You were one of them?" the man slumped back.

Ianto considered then said softly "we escaped before the last set of testing. The set that killed everyone else. They hunted us for year, years. Four long years they hunted us before finally catching up to us. We did a lot of bad things, a lot of smoke and mirror shit and almost got away but we didn't. They found us, dragged us back and applied a mind wipe of five years so our last memory would be the week before we applied for the experiment. Only … I fought it. Only one that did but I did. I fought them back and then went on to enact my revenge. I am the one behind those bombings. I am the one who engineered the bugs that took down their servers, corrupted the mainframe and brought the entire city to a halt. Me. I fucking decimated them." Ianto snorted rubbing at his face "And they have never forgotten. They thought they had got away scot free. Gave us lovely bit pay-packets and shoved us out the door less five years of memory. Like … goodbye and good luck suckers. These two went off dazed and confused where as I was steaming mad. By the time they realised they had released a wolf back into the flock it was too late and I was cutting their limbs off. Then they played hardball and I was forced to go into hiding. That's when I came up with the idea of Phoenix Corp. A subtle fuck you, I am what you sought to create and you can't have me sort of thing. They know it's me but can't touch. I am too fucking big. They can't have the army of immortals they dreamed of so they take their children all these years later, put you together and a few plants in the middle of things to suggest a few things, watch you all drink it in and react. Boom, got their army after all, only … you are doing this out of love for your parents, not the money. And you are mortal. Idiots. Fucking idiots. The ones that killed your parents are the ones you are working for!"

"What?"

"Phoenix foundation ...mine... is the one supporting the surviving families, I pay your fucking bills. I own your fucking armament building you all live n. Me. Them? They are the ones manipulating and owning you. Idiots. Muller. Carlington. Hernderson. Marx. Those guys, those nice old men sitting there at that table talking to you with the matching ties, they are the ones who passed the pen all those years ago for your parents to sign away their lives. You work for the killers you are trying to catch. Fucking idiots." Ianto rose, tired of the conversation "I would like to blow you out an airlock to be with the others but now I know… I do not hate you anymore. Just pity you. Your parents would be so ashamed. You are not avenging them… you are following in the footsteps they died to escape. Idiots the lot of you."

Ianto turned away as the man reached up to his ear, his face changing as he seemed to listen to something and Jack and John shared a look. Yeah, they were listening, this man wired for sound like all the others had been. Yep. They know now. Not only the foundation but those pirates on the same frequency no doubt all heard at the same time that they had been duped by the very enemy they ought.

Wow.

Jack was impressed with Ianto's forward thinking here as the man calmly set fire to everything out there. Ianto rose from his chair and strode from the room as behind him the man's face slumped with grief, falling forward to weep into his arms.

Their great plans mere ashes now.