Chapter Seventeen
"Are you ready to talk about the last time you saw those fairies? The reason why you hate them so much?" I asked Jack later that night. Everyone else had headed off home, the weather predication program was set to alert Jake if the fairies do anything and the others were expected in at seven the next morning instead of the normal eight because they were working an active case.
"On a troop train in 1909." Jack said, pouring himself a glass of brandy. "Fifteen men with me in charge. Everyone happy. Too happy. Too noisy. Then we hit a tunnel. We thought some birds had flown in through an open window. Then came the silence. And when we came out of the tunnel, all fifteen men were dead. They'd been suffocated. My squad. Men I was responsible for."
"That doesn't mean their deaths are your responsibility." I told him softly, reading the blame that Jack had placed on his own shoulders. "Did you ever figure out why they were targeted?"
"About a week earlier some of them had got drunk, drove a truck through a village, ran over a child, killed her. That child was a Chosen One."
"Come on. You need some rest." I sighed, taking the alcohol from Jack and pulling him down into the bunk. Neither of us would get much sleep that night, but at least I was able to distract Jack for a couple of hours.
****October 19th 2007****
At four Jack got a phone call from Gwen because the fairies had trashed her apartment. The both of us headed out to check on her. When they arrived, it was to find that Gwen had already spent the last couple of hours clearing the rubbish and that her soul-mark had called the police.
"In the whole of my working life I have never had to bring the bad times home with me. I have never had to feel threatened in my own home. But not anymore, because this means these creatures can invade my life whenever they feel like it and I am scared, Jack. What chance did Estelle have? What chance do any of us have?" Gwen shouted, as she motioned around the still ruined room. Jack stared back at her passively not responding to what she was saying, despite how much it hurt him to hear what Gwen had just said about Estelle. "You said these creatures protect their own?" Gwen asked calming down slightly.
"Yeah." Jack answered, staring down at some sticks that had been arranged like the round stones found in the woods.
"You mentioned the Chosen Ones. What are they? How many are there?" When Jack didn't answer immediately Gwen snapped again. "Tell me, Jack!"
"All these so-called fairies were children, ones from different moments in time, going back millennia. Part of the lost lands."
"Lost lands. What?"
"The lands that they view as their own." I answered for Jack.
"What exactly do they want? Why are they here?" Gwen asked like Jack hadn't already explained this.
"They want what's theirs. The next Chosen One." Jack answered in a monotone.
The moment that we entered the Hub Jack started issuing orders.
"I want a check on all unexplained deaths in the area."
"What's the weather forecast for today?" Tosh responded, not acknowledging the order that was evidently for her.
"Long sunny spells." Ianto responded, ever the fountain of knowledge.
"It's happening again." Tosh said.
"Where?" I demanded running to Tosh so I could see the map she had brought up. My eyes widened in horror when I recognised the location as a primary school.
"I can't understand it. It's going crazy." Tosh said, typing away at her computer.
"Just leave it. Let's go." Jack order getting everyone to head to the SUV.
As had become the norm for Torchwood, Owen broke the speed limit to get to the school. None of them liked the idea of children being in danger. Owen pulled the SUV into the school drive to see that the parents had been called to take their children home.
"I've never seen anything like it. It was so sudden. Then it, then it just ended." The teacher who had been witness to the event said when Jack asked what had happened.
"Kate, is it?" Owen asked, trying to calm the teacher down. "Was anyone hurt?"
"No. Two children were almost scared to death, but they're okay." Kate said just as Gwen came running up to them. She had once again hung back from the group, presumable to look around the playground.
"What is it?" Jack asked, noting how pale she was.
"I saw them." Gwen responded.
"And there was little Jasmine in amongst it all. She hadn't been touched. The sun was shining down on her. It was, it was like an aura, like something protecting her." Kate continued her explanation.
"Who is Jasmine?" I asked, exchanging a look with Jack. This must have been the chosen one.
"Jasmine Pearce. She's a pupil of mine."
"Where is she now?" Jack asked while I walked away to get Tosh so she could find her address.
Armed with the address, we headed to the suburbs of Cardiff, hoping to get to the child before anyone else died. However, our hope was dashed as we arrived at the house to find what appeared to be party guests fleeing in terror. Jack led the group to the back garden where we found the creatures attacking.
"Go. Go. Go home. Get out. Come on." Jack shouted, trying to get the civilians out of the line of fire. In the middle of the yard one of the creatures jumped on a man.
I was distracted from them by a second creature grabbing Jack. Before the creature could ram its arm down Jack's throat like they did with the other man, I tackled Jack around the waist. Once we hit the ground, we rolled together and climbed to our feet only to see the little girl skipping behind the trees at the back of the garden.
"Do you know you're walking in a forest? Well, you are. It looks like a very old forest, and it's magical. I want to stay in it." Jasmine asked when we passed through the ruined fence.
"You can see this forest?" Jack demanded, lowing his gun so it was pointed at the ground; he couldn't aim his gun at a child. In the past fifty years he had been getting his humanity back, and being with Raven was helping him to come to terms with that.
"Yes." Jasmine responded, turning around.
"But it's not here. It's just an illusion, Jasmine. It is. Your friends are just playing a game with you. The real forest can never come back." Jack slowly approached the girl, keeping his eyes on the trees that were around them.
"Oh, it can. When they take me to it."
"Do you want to go? Stay a child forever? Never grow up and find your soul mark?" I asked, staying slightly behind Jack since he knew the dangers of the fairies better than I did.
"I don't have a soul maker." Jasmine responded.
"She is one of us." The echoing voices came from the trees, alerting them to the creature's appearance.
"Come on. The child isn't sure." Jack shouted.
"I am sure." Jasmine said, shaking her head in denial. Jack pulled Jasmine to him to stop her from moving away. "No!" Jasmine shouted, struggling against Jack.
"Leave her alone. Find another Chosen One." Jack shouted desperately. He couldn't lose another child, he just couldn't.
"Too late. She belongs with us." The voice's said together.
"Jack." I spoke softly, making him look to me. "Look at her, she's already gone." I said motioning the slight glow that had formed around the young girl.
"What happens, if I make her stay?" Jack asked, turning to the creatures. He was giving up, and the creatures acknowledged this by stopping their threatening movement in the trees.
"Then lots more people will die. Next time they'll kill everyone at my school, like they killed Roy, and that man, and your friend." Jasmine responded for the fairies.
"The child won't be harmed?" Jack asked, releasing is grip.
"She lives forever." The creatures responded as one.
"Take her." Jack said, stepping back. I grabbed Jack's hand in support. I knew that it was a very hard decision for him, but Jasmine would be happier with the fairies and the world would be safer.
"Thank you." Jasmine smiled at the both of us before skipping towards a light that had appeared.
"Thank you, protector, and immortal one." The fairies said in their echoing voices.
