Rise of the Champions - Chapter Ninety-Two

Author: Milady Dragon


It was easier to work with the Reality Stone this time, than it had been back in the Valley.

Ianto believed it had to do with a certain willpower. Ruby Hale had been inherently weak in that way; while Ianto himself had a will that had once been compared to the stubbornness of about a thousand mules all rolled into one person.

Alright, Jack used the term 'damned stubbornness', but it was the same thing, really.

He also had Stephen more involved. His fellow Grand Master was always a pleasure to work with, Stephen's steady presence at his back a welcome bedrock upon which Ianto could stand. With the minor mind magicks Ianto had learned from his now-gone friend, Charles Xavier, connecting them even peripherally, holding the tenuous grip on Clint's own mind between them and using his bond with Phil as a lifeline, the Elf stepping onto another world through the portal they'd managed to generate using the now-quiescent Reality Stone.

Still, even if the stone was being cooperative, didn't mean that Ianto could hold the portal open forever, even with his friend's help.

Luckily for them all, he hadn't needed to. The moment they all stepped back through the portal, Ianto let his magic relax, the door onto that strange world closing for good. While he'd had it open, the Cardinal Wizard would sense certain things about it…like the near-total lack of Deep Ways and Void there. He was glad they'd managed to locate both Phil and Crystal so quickly, because there was no way either of them would have lasted long there.

Standing, Ianto felt tired…but not as bad as he would have thought. He joined in on greeting Phil and Crystal, but his eyes trailed to Iohannes, his double, and knew he had enough strength to send the dragon in man shape back to his own world.

Quickly, though, Ianto broke the spell between himself and Clint. His Elf friend hadn't seemed all that uncomfortable with the mental invasion, but then the Wizard understood that Clint trusted him, and that trust had been what had allowed him to make the connection he had. Besides, he would have done anything to find his lover and their daughter, and that included sharing his mind with someone.

Once everyone had welcomed the two back, he and Stephen got back to work. He sat beside the Reality Stone, trying to attune himself back to the magicks of it, his hand resting on one of the red crystal lines that ran through the ordinary rock…rock that had been warped just slightly by the presence of the powerful Artifact melted within its mass.

Iohannes stepped forward. "I'm afraid you won't be able to use any sort of mind magic on me. My mind is slightly different from a human's, and I've had that tried on me before and it didn't work." There was an expression on his face that told Ianto that it hadn't just not worked, it had ended disastrously.

"I won't need to," Ianto said to reassure him. "We'll be using the massive amount of time that your version of Jack puts out. In this, I won't be in charge; Stephen will be."

"And your link is different," Stephen added. "Plus, we won't be bringing you back."

Iohannes nodded. "I believe I understand."

"Ianto, are you about ready?"

He glanced upward at his friend. "Yes. One moment."

The Cardinal Wizard bent his mind back to the Reality Stone. It was quiet under his control, which was still a surprise. From his experience, the Artifact had been anything but cooperative but, as he'd assumed, chances were it had more to do with Ruby Hale than the actual Artifact itself. He wouldn't want to test that too much, but all he had to do was convince it to get Iohannes home.

To do that, Ianto had to search through the realities once again.

But, this time, he would have Stephen along with him.

It would be Stephen who would be searching for Iohannes' version of the Deathless, this one so full of time that he should be immediately noticeable. All of that time had left its mark on the dragon as well, and Stephen was confident it could locate it and use that mark to confirm that they had the correct world.

Using the Reality Stone was like surfing through the multiverse, gliding along the various and different realities, and yet it took effort not to get distracted by what he was seeing in each one. Back, when he'd first touched the stone, he'd been tossed into the multiverse without any preparation, and he'd almost been overwhelmed. This time, he knew what to expect.

That didn't make it any easier, though. But at least there wasn't so much a chance of being lost.

He'd read treatises on the nature of the multiverse, some written far in the past, while others newer and with more up-to-date theories. There were also the various religious tomes, about how the Gods created the vastness of space and time and reality, separating them all with the Veil Between the Worlds, each different and yet the same. Ianto wasn't the most religious person in the world, but he did understand there were certain truths in the teachings, if a person could remove the hyperbole and exaggeration from the base parts of the old tales.

However, seeing that multiverse through the lens of the Reality Stone…it was amazing and terrifying all at once. Even managing to ignore a majority of what was revealed by his magic, Ianto couldn't help but notice certain things as his mind skimmed the realities. Places where magic didn't exist, and others where that was all there was. Versions of himself that called out to his soul, reaching out for its duplicate, wanting to be whole in a way that souls weren't, and yet no one realized they would never be complete. It was heartbreaking in a way, but people were meant to be like that, souls sundered by the Gods in order to create beings across every single universe there was. Universes uncounted, unnumbered, into infinity.

And, in each reality, there were those with links between their souls.

People meant to be together, to be better than the sum of their parts. Like him, and Jack. And Phil and Clint. Those links were so incredibly rare, and yet Ianto could see them clearly through the stone and his magic. Perhaps a dozen within each reality, if that…and many of the pairings were familiar, were himself and Jack, multiplied many times over, as well as Phil and Clint…and some surprises, like Steve and James, in universes where they'd never been parted by death and disaster.

He found himself wanting to linger, but refrained. He didn't have the time, and he needed to locate Iohannes' version of Jack before his strength did finally flag.

A familiar touch on the shoulder signaled him that Stephen may have found the version of Deathless they were searching for. Yes…now that Ianto's attention had been brought to this particular reality, he could practically feel the oddness about this Jack Harkness, how the forces of the universe curved about him, as if he was a stone in the middle of a river, strong and unmovable. While he couldn't see what Stephen was, Ianto could guess this was the one…

"Stop."

Stephen's soft voice kept Ianto from prompting the Reality Stone to open a portal to that reality. He waited as his friend assessed the situation.

"It's the wrong one," Stephen reported, "there's no bond of time between him and Iohannes."

"So, there's more than one version of Jack like he described." That shouldn't surprise him; as there were so many types of Ianto Joneses, there would have been at least that many Jack Harknesses. He was certainly glad that there was some other sort of bond between their guest and his mate, or else he could very well have ended up somewhere else.

It was like looking for a piece of straw in a very large haystack.

They managed to locate six Jack Harknesses with the necessary energy signature before Stephen signaled him to stop.

"That's the one."

Ianto took a closer look at the world Stephen indicated. It certainly lacked magic, as Iohannes had claimed, but there was some, all a version of Great magic, as it seemed to usually be. Perhaps their world was the unusual one, with all three sorts of magic so prevalent.

But there was so much in the way of variety…worlds of Void and Deep Ways and Great magic, just as there were worlds with all three and none. It truly was amazing, and despite the reason for it, Ianto was both grateful for seeing them, and wishing he never had.

"Form the portal," he murmured. "We have it."

Stephen's gift had always been with portals. He hardly ever used Teleport Artifacts, generating the portals easily.

However, even he had limits. Creating a portal between realities was not within his power. However, he had the Reality Stone, which was able to create its own version, and it was a relatively simple matter to create one in the right place.

The portal formed just in front of Ianto. Glancing up, he could see into it; it was a massive room, with a fountain in the center of it that extended all the way up to the ceiling high above. It was brightly lit and yet gloomy at the same time, a dichotomy that reminded the Wizard of many of the abandoned Wizard's Towers he'd helped find when traveling with Jack.

However, the sense of magic he got…it was minimal, and yet there was something else…he wondered if this was the Rift that Iohannes had mentioned. It was a power that he'd never experienced before, and would be asking Stephen if it's the sort of time energy Iohannes had claimed that Rift exuded.

Someone approached the portal, someone very familiar to Ianto and yet different at the same time

This Jack Harkness was dressed in a blue work shirt, much like Ianto's own Jack wore. There were straps over the shoulders, connecting to brown trousers, with a strange holster on his belt. A leather bracer of some sort was on his left wrist, and another band on his right with a round attachment, and Ianto thought it might have been some sort of chronometer.

His hair was different, in some sort of spiked style, but it was the same shade, as was the blue of his narrowed eyes. As Ianto watched, those eyes widened; his mouth moved and, while he couldn't hear what he said, he knew the form of his name on the man's lips.

There were others in the chamber beyond; he saw versions of Toshiko, and there was Owen, and Ianto missed him like a shard of ice in his heart. His Owen had been long dead, of old age, surrounded by his family and friends in the end. Another one greatly resembled Phil enough that he assumed this man was a relative of that universe's Phil Coulson.

Others he didn't recognize, but that wasn't important. What was, was getting Iohannes back to his own reality.

Their dragon friend stepped forward. "Thank you," he said sincerely, his eyes meeting Ianto's. "I will never forget your kindness."

With that, he stepped through the portal, and right into that Jack's arms. He clutched onto the dragon as if he'd just regained something very precious.

Ianto suspected that he had, judging from the odd mating bond between them.

Iohannes pulled away long enough to wave. The others on that world had gathered around the embracing mates, watching as Stephen disengaged the portal.

The last thing Ianto saw was that Jack pulling that Ianto into a fierce kiss.

He suddenly very much wanted to kiss his own Jack.