19

The scanner swung for the third time, Droxi demanding they be sure. Apparently the sword had got around about the exploding jar and he was not sure is he should believe them or not. Again, the scanner beeped that it was correct and everyone gave a sigh of relief.

"Bring out Janet"

Jack paled, stepping back as John instinctively stepped in front of him and Ianto looked at them both wondering what the problem was, then the huge door to one side opened and two men entered with a huge creature they struggled to contain on a leash as each man held on either side.

This was a Wolfkat mixed with something else, large and struggling almost upright on its hind legs as it struggled against the leash. Jack was now clinging to the back of Jack's coat as John squared his shoulders and started to breath lightly. Like they were about to run.

Ianto was not so alarmed, he had worked with these most of his life and although he had never seen one so huge or altered but it did not mater. He knew how to behave and made sure not to make eye contact as he instead watched the others reactions. Idiots, that is not how you behave around one if you want to befriend it. You only make it uncomfortable too.

The creature sniffed at the jar's contents and hummed softly then swung to look at Droxi. Ianto had only a moment to hold back his reaction of alarm as the creature then swung to him instead, stepping close to sniff at Ianto's hands that were bare. It made a soft chirp to say it had found it's mark.

"What the hell does that mean?" Droxi demanded.

"I have some on my hands maybe?" Ianto asked, and then shrugged "Hold out yours. You are the cleanest right?"

Droxi did so and grimaced as the creature sniffed at his hands and made the same chirping noise. Ianto smiled "See? It smelt the jar on my hands, I forgot about gloves. It seems the bloodline of your kind are strong."

"Yes, we are!" the Cyborg said with pride.

Everything was back on track and the haggling began as Jack tried to get Droxi to publically agree that there was no longer any ties between them and no debt. Droxi was not happy about a public announcement of any kind, not being one for those things and it was during the bickering that Dax first noticed something the others hadn't. He leaned forward to reach around Toshiko and touch the coms button "Do you see that man that entered from the east door?"

Ianto turned his head along with John to see the man in the room, John taking a sharp breath in as Dax said in the coms "That's the one who chased us on Inyan. That's the fucking Hitman!"

Ianto tried not to show alarm as the man focused on Jack. Jack. He was the one the man wanted, clear in the way he was moving around trying to get a clear view of him. Ianto took a step to his left, blocking Jack as the Captain had not noticed the danger there.

Droxi then glanced back and it was now clear to everyone that not only had Droxi allowed this man to be present, he knew full well why he was here. Finally Jack slammed his hand on the table and said loudly "Then we will take it back, he will pay us for its return right?"

Silence.

Ianto moved again and Droxi looked at him "You got a problem?"

"Yes, that man had a weapon aimed at us" Ianto said calmly and Droxi swung to stare at the Hitman with annoyance.

"Hamerd, I told you that we do not allow weapons in there. If you want to talk to Harkness you have to wait and he will speak with you. This is not the way we…" anything else about to be rasped out was lost in the gunfire as Hamerd opened fire on them, Jack yelping as Ianto stepped in front of him and John to take the hit to his body armour.

"Janet, Rouse!" Ianto yelled, hoping like hell that creature was trained.

She was.

Janet roared as the order to attack was issued, lunging towards the man with the gun as she had been trained to. The Regular giving the order now her handler as he had given the order. Droxi yelled for the creature to halt but it did not.

This was something Droxi could not understand. This was his pet. Bred to only obey the command of her master. He had hand fed the bitch for years and here she was, moving at the orders of this… this… actually when you take a moment to see him move he looks a lot like …. No. Droxi was stunned to immobility as he watched the man who was the spitting image of his own father moving along with the creature, his hand raised to order the WolfKat to attack with menace. The blood so strong in him it had keys the creature as if he was the dirt in the jar. This is why she had keyed onto him. Nothing to do with ash. This man… this stranger… was of his blood and probably a cousin or something. Right here, right in front of him a blood relative hiding in a uniform like an infiltrator that…. Droxi gave a screech of horror as he was tackled to the ground by Jack who hissed in his ear "Stay down old friend, this is getting nasty."

Yes.

Droxi rolled his head to see Ianto extending a blade from his sleeve to plunge into the Hitman's chest with a feral snarl of hate, the soldier now a killer on display. A Cybeeb. Blood. And right now, he was the one with an ownership claim to the jar of dirt. Droxi saw a new threat and responded by struggling to his hands and knees, revealing the gun hidden inside his cybernetic hand and firing at Ianto with open malice.

Jack punched the Cyborg in the side of the head as hard as he could, his anger raw as he felt more fear for Ianto than for himself. The Hitman was no more, the blood on the blade dripping as Ianto slowly turned to stare at the men struggling on the floor, and then he walked over to kneel behind them and place the knife into the joint of the arm socket, removing the cybernetic arm from the man's body and rendering the gun inoperative.

As the man writhed in agony at the loss of the limb, the electrical surges crackling Ianto leaned in close and said calmly "Hello Uncle Boogie."

.

.

Things had calmed down once the WolfKat attacked people with glee before Ianto got her under control. Now they all sat at a table with open confusion as Droxi ordered refreshments like this was some sort of party. The creature watching intently from the background with a body it was slowly devouring like it was lunch. Clearly whatever she was mixed with, it was not a social breed.

"So, nephew. Where have you been all this time?" Droxi asked after a while.

"Waiting to find the opportunity to kill you Uncle" Ianto replied as everyone looked on with rapt attention. Jack was confused as he watched Ianto transform into someone else. This had all been a shell game of sorts? He felt used and abused now as he was sure that… Ianto's and slid onto Jack' s knee under the table and squeezed gently to let him know that things were still in play.

Whatever was going on… this was not over yet.

"I have an edidic memory. I remember all I have ever seen, heard, read or smelt… like an instant replay in my head" Ianto tapped his head and then added "the earliest memory is of my mother laughing as she lifted me up to swing me through the air. I must have been two or so"

"Ah, a good memory." Droxi agreed.

"My last memory of her is when you blew half her face off" Ianto continued like it was no big deal "About three and a half then I think."

Everyone froze, Droxi jerking in his chair as Ianto gazed along the table at him then Droxi said with incredulity "You… little Ifan?"

"You killed my mother, your sister because she had a claim to the chair at the table. You wanted your son to sit there beside you, so you and your men entered the house and killed my family. All of them. Mama, Da, sissy Rhi-rhi. Thought you had killed me too, but you didn't. I survived and became a Regulator. How about that? And here I am, after all this time thanks to Jack, face to face with the only man I have ever truly hated. So. The Jar of Dirt. Who does it belong to? Currently, it belongs to us. Me. Not you. So… I think I have the power here." Ianto sat back as Droxi opened and closed his moth then bellowed for the guards to seize them.

"No" Ianto said and they all stopped, unsure how to proceed. "My father, was near the head of the table. His Lloyd bloodline even stronger than yours. You committed treason by murdering the prominent family member of a higher seated chair. You, uncle… are the one in trouble now."

John sat back as he watched Iantot give a hand signal and the WolfKat reacted, rushing up to stand behind Droxi's chair with a menacing yowl tht made everyone on the room a little unnerved.

"As my mother lay dying on the floor with me cradled underneath her body, the last thing I saw was you exiting the room with my father's head swinging by his hair in your hands. I promised my mother, I was only a smalling but I promised her that one day I would return the favour. I am my father's son also, a Welshonian, and even if your side of the family are tyrants and arseholes, her side was noble and just. And we always keep a promise."

Dax came from nowhere, totally unexpected as he swung the blade down from behind the chair, the WolfKat giving him room to slice with a deep snarl in the back of his throat, severing the head of the man with ease. As it bounced along the table it was Dax who spoke.

"And that is for my Auntie Jen. Piece of shit."

Ianto nodded sagely "Well done Cousin."

"Ha!" John slapped the table with glee "I knew it. You two do already know one another."

"We've not seen each other since we were small children, Owen a few years older than me of course. We knew one another instantly, how could we not. Blood. Why else do you think we were so invested in this mission of yours? You got us closer to our target than we had ever been before, individually trying for years to take him down. Owen's own family wiped out by the same monster here, for fear that Owen's father might lay a claim. Owen's mother Welshonian. To meet, find one another and then to have such a strong team to carry out this plan to fruition… hell's teeth. Cousin Owen here is now the oldest of our clan. The seat Droxi so cleverly defended all these years is now his."

"And that bloody Hitman?"

"A fly in the ointment I did not foresee. Something about a high blood's daughter? And wife? And brother? Hmmm? From Sector F?" Ianto raised an eyebrow as John poked at the head on the table and made a grunting noise.

Jack gaped at him "No. Tell me you did NOT use my pass again you fucking whore."

"How was I to know he was not into sharing. Gods, if I had known I would not have had him too. Jealous little bitch clearly did not like that they all got a taste of this excellence" John sneered as he waved a hand up and down his body.

"So, all along… you were playing us?" Jack asked, needing to hear the answer.

"Don't be a divvy, of course not. We had no idea the path we were on until we both started to speak at once and say the same words. Owen and I were as stunned as you are now to discover one another after all this time…. To start to believe that we might pull this off. Cariad, you… were never part of a plan. No. You were… such a distraction it's a wonder we pulled it off at all." Ianto laughed softly "I never thought I would get here. It was like one of those fantasies you play out in your head in the darkness of the barracks after lights out while staring at the ceiling. Ways to kill the man you hate. This was something that had to happen and was destined to. I promised my mother, a promise made is a promise kept."

"So, what now?" John asked, eyeballing Dax who was now openly poking the head with a pencil to see if the eyeball would react.

"Now I clean this place up and settle in" Dax replied as he finally gave up on the head and accepted the man was dead "This is my new place as I inherited it just a few moments ago."

"And you?" Jack said softly to Ianto.

"What was it you said to me about that planet out of the way you came from? Boeshane? A good place to raise a little girl, you said. Maybe you can show me around, fly boy."

Jack's grin spilt his face and lit up the room as he pulled Ianto close.

"Oh yeah?"

"You did promise."

"I did, didn't I"