7
Ianto was in the courtyard feeding birds when Abigail came striding towards him with Denver on her heels as she screamed "where are my children!"
Ianto glanced over at her as the guards stepped forward with swords scraping from their sheaths. He motioned them away and slowly pivoted to face the woman who seemed a mixture of distraught and enraged. She did not seem to notice the guards or their intent but Denver did, hesitating with confusion as his mate kept striding forward.
Abigail seemed almost apocalyptic with rage as she shook, stopping about five or six feet from him. "I know you have them. An Eye for an Eye, right? What your man said… where are they? What have you done with them?"
Ianto canted his head as he stared her down and she felt the heat of his anger "you know Abby… you really need to calm down. If we are really going to go full Eye for an Eye I will need your children dragged out here to the courtyard in the middle of the night, seized while sleeping peacefully in their beds…. so the dragon behind you can flame them to death."
The couple swung to gape at the huge red dragon who stood on the roof behind them, her heck snaking down as she eyeballed them with a gigantic emerald green eye the size of a dinner plate.
"Oh gods" Denver whimpered as he staggered back.
"If I was to be correct in the punishment fitting the crime I would need you to watch as their skin peeled back, the bone becoming visible as their blood boiled, their skin cracked and their skin then flapped like paper. Their lips slowly receding back until their teeth are shown in a grotesque grin… their skulls forming the shape of their heads, their faces mere cheekbones and jaws with viscera stretched over them… oh yes… their screaming would be silent now, their vocal cords too damaged for sound as their throats close over from the heat that has seared their only means of breathing closed. Reduced to monsters… to… mere flesh and bone. Then… just another burnt roast."
Ianto let her take a moment to fall to her knees, begging as she clutched at the grass and wept for her babies. Denver stood silently, not moving or speaking as he watched the dragon with wide eyes. Myfanwy stepped down from the roof like it was merely a step from one stone to another, now towering over them all as she clicked her tongue.
"Well… truly Abigail must done to death too I guess… for Lisa? Hmm… medium to well done?" Ianto sighed theatrically as he flapped a hand in her direction, now addressing Denver "You will need to kneel with her in your lap as you try to comfort her, promise her your undying love and other lies… hold her even though her flesh is moving under your fingers like jelly. The smell of burning flesh never leaves you really. My last memory of her is of… something ungodly. You killed my mate and our babies. And took their happiness from me too. You really need to consider that."
Denver finally took a shuddering breath and said softly "I yield."
"Excuse me?"
"I YIELD!" he screamed his arms wide "I FUCKING YIELD!"
Ianto turned to look over at Jack who was sitting in a bench, so far undetected "Cariad? Do you know what that means? Did I get that choice and just didn't know that at any time I could have yelled that and stopped my children's deaths? Their horrible disfigured bodies would have…. Reversed back to life? Really? Huh."
"Please, just…. Don't hurt them. My youngest child supped with yours, they were breast siblings…" she was hysterical now.
"And yet… you murdered them" Ianto shrugged.
Myfanwy made a new noise, like a soft purr as she leaned in close enough for their clothes to flap in her hot breeze, her head now shaking back and forth like she was telling them her decision as well.
Eeney meeney…
"Well… I suppose I can spare them. Just… well… keep them I guess, as replacements? Can I do that Cariad? They will not be the same, mine were worth so much more, theirs seem to be inferior breeding" Ianto was clearly enjoying himself as he watched the woman now lay on the ground and let her head slam against it several times.
Finally Ianto sighed, turning away from them as he dismissed them "I will return them to you when I am ready… well… maybe bits of them… periodically… no… sorry… there I go again. So fucking vicious. Oh well."
"Please… please…" she screamed for mercy and Ianto finally swung back to face her.
"Tell me everything. Who ordered it, who was behind it and what you did to carry out those orders" Jack demanded as he stepped forward and between her and Ianto "Then… only then… will we consider maybe returning one of them."
She wailed as she collapsed on the ground again and Denver nodded, knowing he had no choice.
His time had come.
Time to pay the piper.
And this one did not call rats or children after him… this one who stood there demanding payment for their sins called fucking dragons from the sky.
Oh Gods Save Us!