Torchwood: Divergence
Book Two: Adferiad
Chapter 14
Ianto didn't understand why he'd started feeling so incredibly anxious and jittery upstairs earlier. He'd been uneasy most of the afternoon, but the near panic he was now experiencing had set in suddenly without warning and he couldn't link it to anything. Neither Scieron battle practice nor meditation was helping either. If anything, the unpleasant fear-edged anxiety was getting worse instead of better. What was wrong with him? Was something coming that was horrific enough to somehow affect him in advance?
The young Welshman reached for the towel he'd laid out on the weapons table, his hands shaking more and more as he used it to dry his face, neck and chest. The unsettling sensation was vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. Suddenly he felt dizzy, the sense of panic climbing a notch. This wasn't right. Uncertain and now somewhat frightened, he keyed his earcomm.
"Jack…"
[How's practice?] the American responded, sounding slightly distracted. [When the hell did we start using that much power in the morgue?]
"Jack… something's wrong…" Ianto insisted breathlessly, an all too familiar ache settling in his chest as his heartrate accelerated for no good reason.
[Yeah,] Harkness agreed, though it was obvious his attention was elsewhere. [One cryo unit's been pulling more and more power for a couple of months now. Damn… it's the one Turlough locked the Master's Sanctum into.]
The mere mention of the item made the younger man remember where he'd felt the anxiety and dread he was suffering before, even as it kicked his panic into overdrive, his vision narrowing as he started to gasp for air.
"Jack… help…"
[Ianto?] there was fear in the Captain's voice, but his partner couldn't respond as all his muscles started to jerk.
The twenty-six-year-old barely managed a choked cry of pain as fire shot along his nerves and his spine stiffened, knew he was falling, but the world blacked out before he hit the floor. When he blinked dazedly back to awareness, he was in Jack's arms, the older man using the towel to put pressure on the inside of his right wrist and palm, and there was blood everywhere. The seizure muzzy Changeling vaguely remembered trying to stay on his feet by grabbing the bolted down iron weapons table, could see one of the nearer corners dripping slowly coagulating blood. Obviously he'd gone down anyhow, which meant he'd likely ripped open his hand and wrist on the metal table top.
"You feeling okay now?" Harkness asked worriedly, trying to get the young Welshman to focus on him. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"I…" Ianto breathed unsteadily, still a bit scattered. "I'd been feeling anxious for no reason… and it got really bad, just before I came down. I tried to work it off… but it was getting worse. When… when I called you… as soon as you mentioned… the… the Sanctum…"
The Archivist started to hyperventilate the instant he said the word, his blue eyes mirroring confusion and fear.
"It…" he gasped desperately, feeling his muscles start to tighten again. "It's… breaking.. free…"
"Shit," Jack hissed, forced to release the twenty-six-year-old's still profusely bleeding arm to restrain him through another seizure. "I've got ya… we'll figure this out."
As soon as the convulsions stopped, the Captain picked his partner up and headed for the stairs. It seemed to take forever to get to the medical bay, but he finally had the shirtless Guardian on the exam table, and grabbed disinfectant and gauze to mitigate the damage to his right arm.
"You just rest a minute, yeah?" Harkness urged after he'd finished cleaning and heavily wrapping the ugly gash that ran from the far side of Ianto's wrist diagonally up to the base of his thumb across the main veins in front of the joint. "Let me call the expert on this."
He quickly washed up and pulled out his mobile, speed dialled Turlough's number and put the phone on speaker.
[Rift crisis?] the redhead queried as soon as he picked up.
"Time Lord artefact crisis," Jack explained tightly. "Ianto and I have been getting twitchy all afternoon and we just discovered that the thing's been steadily overloading the cryo crypt it's in. Good bet it's trying to break free. How do we stop it?"
[Bugger all,] Turlough swore softly. [The only possible way I've found so far, is to let the residual entity inside the Sanctum to enter a body, then completely destroy them both. But since that's not really an option…]
"I could do it," the American offered immediately. "Take it out somewhere in the middle of nowhere, let it possess me, then blow us both up. I'd come back, but it wouldn't."
[Except there's a very real chance that the Chronon energy inside it could negate your singularity state,] the recently turned thirty-year-old warned over the phone line. [That's why I haven't brought it up until now.]
"Jack…" Ianto called wearily, still shivering atop the exam table.
"Is it hurting you again?" Harkness asked worriedly.
"My return to life has nothing to do with Chronon energy or any other part of the Time Vortex," his lover murmured quietly, his blue eyes dark and deadly serious. "Take me out to the open space along the cliffs past Penarth, let me stand on a proton mine or something. When the presence in that thing enters my body, I detonate the explosive once you're a safe distance…"
"No," Jack interrupted, still adverse to the idea of seeing the younger man die, especially like that.
"You came back when the Hub was destroyed," Ianto insisted. "I'll come back from this. It might be a day or more depending on what's left for the Scieron to work with, but I will come back. Just watch for a Hell portal… it'll be me."
[He's got a good point,] Turlough put in. [He stands a much better chance of resurrection in this case than you do.]
"Please, Jack," Ianto breathed. "It's the best chance we have of destroying that thing forever. And we cannot let it get loose."
[I can come help you,] the young alien on the other end of the phone line offered.
"No," Harkness refused flatly, his face grim. "We'll do this alone. Thanks for the information."
He terminated the call, and met his partner's determined gaze.
"I'll get the necessary supplies ready," he stated tightly, misery burning in his eyes. "We won't pull that thing from cryo till we're set to go."
"I'll change clothes and come help," Ianto nodded, trying to hide the guilt that was already eating away at him.
He slid off the exam table and headed out of the Autopsy Lab, injured arm tucked close to his stomach as it began to throb. It didn't take him long to change into a mismatched suit and some of his old shoes from storage. The trousers belonged to the one he'd ruined at Harwood's with the Herperan, the jacket and waistcoat to one he'd destroyed the trousers to before that, the shirt and tie part of a suit lost even before the 456 had come into the picture and not a proper fit now. Better this lot get shredded that one of his newer outfits.
When the young Welshman exited the bedroom he saw that Jack's coat was no longer in the office, and he emerged into the Hub to find the man wearing it and waiting with a carryall near the big cog-wheel door.
"I could still do this," Harkness whispered, his eyes overly bright and his jaw clenched.
"If that thing's energy stops you from recovering, Jack, you'll be really and truly dead," Ianto pointed out as calmly as possible. "If you die, I suicide… and where does that leave the future? You don't believe UNIT can handle what lies ahead for the Earth, or you wouldn't have decided to stay with Torchwood. You would have suggested we let Gwen have it to run, and taken me out into the stars by now if you though they could do without us."
The American frowned but didn't argue, his eyes going steely and shuttered.
"Take this to the SUV," he finally conceded. "I'll go get the container with the problem in it."
Ianto took the carryall and keys, headed out to the private underground car park the Torchwood vehicles now called home. What he intended to do was hurting Jack, but it honestly was the only option they had right now. He wasn't looking forward to finding out what it felt like to be blown to bits, nor did he want to leave his partner to suffer for whatever length of time it took the Scieron to repair his body and send him back from Hell. However, they couldn't afford to have the tiny presence of the rogue Time Lord stored in that artefact manage to possess someone else and escape to wreak unimaginable havoc. So, he was going to have to be strong and face this death standing. And hope Jack could forgive him for it in the end.
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AN: Remember that rough road to the Holiday I mentioned? This is the start of it… You have been warned.
Thank you to those reading the story. And thank you to those who have followed, favourited, and reviewed. NM