25

John seized Saxon by the throat as they both fall back onto the floor, the gun firing as John grunts with pain, still bearing down his weight and anger despite the bullet now in his chest. Jack can see the two struggling through the chair legs and he erupts from the frozen spot on the floor, charging around the table to throw himself down as well, the gun discharging again and John shudders as this bullet finds it's mark and Jack pushes John's body off Saxon to get hold of him better himself, snarling now as he decides to forego the necessities, reaching for the blade in John's boot and proceeding to start to cut Saxon's throat.

This was not expected and Saxon gives a shrill shriek as he finally sees a flaw in his considerations here. Apparently there is a way to kill an immortal that he had not thought of … not even considered in all the scenarios and attempts made in the past.

Jack knows.

Ianto had always known and shared that too, now able to sit on the floor cradling their daughter in his lap as he watches it play out.

The final part of his plan, years… decades in the planning and executing is finally here.

Jack savagely removes Saxon's head from his body and throws it across the room with a roar of anger. Turning to the body now convulsing and with the exacting malice of one who is quite insane, he starts hacking the body in to pieces.

John gasps back to life, with an insanely fierce roar as his mind tires to wake from the madness, rising to stare at Jack and the carnage. It takes a moment ya know, rebirth is painful. Confusing and not without perils of its own but this time has been well spent. Not only the body resetting, refitting itself and renewing .. those memories hidden now remembered are also being filed into the correct areas so when those eyes open to view the world once more, it is with everything where it should ne.

Ianto looks away from the two men now cutting the body up together to look down at the face of his daughter. His lover's mouth, his own cheekbones and forehead, Jack's nose… his own chin … his beloved's eyes…. "Hello poppet."

"Taddy?" Lucy is confused. Bound to be and he holds her as he rocks her gently.

"It's OK darling. Taddy is here. It's OK. Don't' be afraid. This is your first rebirth. The first time is the hardest. It never gets easy but this is the hardest one, the first time you realize you are alive. You are borne of two immortals … Lucy my darling … you are immortal too. Thank the gods" Ianto starts to weep as he lets his head fall to hers, foreheads touching as he holds her tightly "Thanks the Gods that they heard my prayers. It was a terrible thing to do, please forgive me. I … it may not have worked and I would have died a million more deaths .. but I had faith. Gods, why he kept you from me like this for so long. Why he was trying to procreate with you. See? A child from him and you would be immortal too. His bloodline finally realigning its goal of immortality with the first son. Why he hated me so much that he would do this. He thought only the males were immortal, didn't know you are to. His bloodline could not sustain the immortality's youth gene. With me and Daddy creating you, he had a way to do it. Finally … he could breed with you and the male children would be immortals … he would have achieved the goals of his family's line. You. You were the prize. All the time, all along he knew I was seeking you, destroying worlds fighting to find you and he knew if I ever did he would lose everything. Silly fool did not know you would return. Thought you had our blood but was mortal. Too stupid to test the theory for fear of losing his bargaining chip."

"We had to let him think that" Jack agreed as he crouched by them, a napkin used to wipe his bloody hands "We let him think you were mortal, why we were so upset to lose you, fought so hard. We had to make it seem like you are delicate, let him see how precious you were to us. Why he punished us so much, why we were tortured so much before he mind-wiped us. He was angry that we managed to create a life. Of course, as you are a naturally conceived immortal, not created in a lab like us, you didn't show the markers he was looking for in your blood. The fake bits added to us are not fake in you but inherited. That didn't show in his tests, right Tiger?"

"Yes. Any time he tried to test for it, he failed. As you had never died and reset… you were essentially mortal. See? Did he hit you? Hurt you? Cut you? You healed at a mortal rate because the first reset had not occurred yet, the immortality not enacted. He did not think it was there. We tricked him. The greatest shell game of all ... we hid you in plain sight. We have scars from before our first death too. Forgive us, we had to protect you and it was the only way to draw him out of hiding. So we dug in and let him catch us, do this to think he was the stronger one, in charge. We could blow an entire solar system apart and not find him. This was the only way to get him in front of me so I could kill him. Stop him." Ianto begged her "Save everyone else. He is not like us … he had flaws … could be ended even if we can't be."

"And if it hadn't worked?" she demanded, angry now as she drew from him "If my death had been final?"

"We were all going to die out here" John said as he rose from the body, dripping with blood "This vessel is set to fly forever unless given the codes, trapping us and everyone within for an eternity without ever reaching a planet to let us disembark or call out for help. No contact … trapped forever in a steel prison. Only … I think we are Ok now Candy."

"Myfanwy" Ianto rose to his feet turning from the daughter he knew was rejecting him for his cruel plans "Disengage protocols. Phoenix is going cold. 445933."

"Protocol Fire Extinguisher in effect"

The vessel's lights flickered and full power came up, doors opened and the vessel stopped hurtling through space as she resumed normal flight.

Ianto walked from the room before they could see his tears.

A hollow victory.