Chapter Five
Coma Owen
Adrian woke up at 4am, got out of bed and struggled into a wetsuit. He then put a pair of trousers with straps and a shirt over that, plus some slip on beach trainers and left the appartment half dazed.
Out in the hall he bumped into Owen,
"What're you doing up this hour?" Owen asked him
"Eva" Adrian yawned, "I need to convince her to go back to Mermadine before her gils go grey from the poluted water"
"Hey, our water is not poluted" Owen said with a point
"Is to a mermaid, what're you up for?" He replied
"Duh, Torchwood, won't run it self...have fun with the fish" Owen grinned
The second Owen got outside he got a phone call from Pitch,
"Something' off about this nail bar in town, whatever it is it's enegery is interfeering with my car and it's giving me a headache" He said
"I'm on my way, text me the street name" Owen said and with that he got into his car and drove off, thinking nothing of it.
Adrian carefully made his way across a rock and crouched down. He started playing with the water but for a moment or two nothing happened,
"Hmm, maybe she saw sense" He said to himself
No such luck, there was a sudden rush and the mermaid shot up out of the water, giggled as she wrapped her arms around Adrian and took him under.
Owen nearly crashed into Pitch' car as he arrived at the nail bar in question. He got out and looked at Pitch,
"Breaks failed, engine's shot" He said lifting the bonnet, then he grabbed his head, "Ouch!"
"You feel pain?" Pitch asked, worried
"I was hit by something the night before Jack and Jasmine married the Doc, I have an increase in activity, guess it's a delayed reaction" Owen replied
This seemed fair,
"I tried contacting the owners but no response" Pitch said
Owen got out a scanner and scanned the door,
"OK we have two conflicting readings, there's something in the basement and something on the wall behind the till. Whatever is on the wall is what's giving you a headache. The other is emulating a resurrection machine"
"What kind of nail bar is this?" Pitch said
"Could be a sunbed to be fair" Owen said, "Let's get this door open"
With some effort Owen and Pitch got inside. They walked over to the wall and removed a painting. Behind that painting were spiky red crystals. Pitch tried to drag Owen back but it was too late. The crystals embeded themselves into Owen and suddenly Owen was writhing in pain. He looked all around and then yelled,
"Chris!"
Chris ported to them and crouched to Owen,
"What's wrong with him?"
"Crystal bombs...they're trying to figure out if this is the one Pole is looking for"
"Shit!"
Chris got out his sonic device and knocked Owen out.
Morgan looked up and laughed at the state Adrian was in as he squelched in,
"No Owen?" He asked ignoring the sniggers
"No, no idea where he is" Morgan said honestly
"Who let you in?" Adrian asked
He heard a familiar cough and turned to find a tanned Jack and his mother with turquoise hair,
"Miss us?" He grinned
"You...not so much, mum, always" Adrian joked
"Rude!" Jack said
At that moment Chris and Pitch arrived with Owen' body, Jack, Jasmine, Morgan and Adrian ran up the stairs. Before any of them could say anything Chris held up a piece of paper with Time Lord writing on it,
"What's going on?" Morgan asked
"OK...Jack, get hold of Michael Iron"
"But!" Jack said, not wanting to be anywhere near that man after remembering he took Honour,
"Owen needs to be frozen if I'm going to save him, get over it, Honour is with the Doctor, he was doing his job" Jasmine said, then she looked at Adrian, "I'm going to print off a list, I need you and Morgan to head over to Chrissie' place. Tell her father what's going on. I'll join you as soon as Owen is safely on his way to SLSC"
"But what's wrong with him?" Morgan demanded as Adrian nodded his head
"Owen has a series of bombs inside him" Jasmine said
"Bombs!" Both Jack and Morgan exclaimed
"This has Pole written all over it, if we say anything even close to the information these crystals need it'll drain him, take his abilities, he'll never wake up, the wrong person get's shredded. Now I can get these Crystals out of him but if I'm right about the counter then I have to break the law and only I am authorised to do that. I'm dead. You can't trace anything back to me" Jasmine said
"Oh God!" Jack exclaimed,
Adrian and Morgan wrapped loudly on the door to Chrissie' apartment. A pissed off Brendan asnwered the door,
"It's 5:30 am!" He snapped, "One of you better be dying"
"Owen has bomb crystals inside him" Adrian said, "I have a list, mum needs to know the counters" He added as Brendan grabbed him and Morgan inside,
"Bomb crystals?" He said as Chrissie came out of her room, yawning. She shared a look of shock with Brendan, If Jack so much as says the wrong thing...so much for my lie in, put the kettle on"
"Sure" Chrissie said
"Not you, these two" Brendan said, "You're part of the furniture now I only make tea for guests" He told them
Out of ear shot Chrissie took the list,
"The counters for these are all illegal on Earth...and Croxten, Galafray, Gallifrey EY, Coreville, T5H, huh, they're also hidden in a lab in the secure storage warehouse. Jack has an illegal alien surgery...plus one in Brixton that the 11th Doctor does locome for on occasion actually"
"Can you mask it?" He asked her
"I'll warp the signal so the court believe this to be a Cube School experiment under cotrolled enviroments" She said, then as Adrian entered the room with tea for himself and her she forgot who she was, "You look a lot brighter than when I saw you last"
"You were at the hospital with me?" Adrian asked with a smile
"Course I was, we're friends aren't we?" She smiled, "If things were different...would you go out with me at all?"
"Give me strength" Brendan said rolling his eyes
"Why not?" He said
"You can come on holiday with us this summer" Brendan said to Adrian,
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves" Chrissie said
"Technically speaking he's my nephew and now Jack and I are on speaking terms it could do me good to get to know his family" Brendan said
"That makes me and Adrian cousins" Chrissie said
"You're not related by blood what's the problem?" Brendan said
"Adrian, would you like to come on holiday with me?" She said to Adrian
"Why not?" He replied with a grin
It felt like ages before Michael arrived at the hub with three SLSC colleagues but once he did things moved quickly. Owen was strapped up and rolled out,
"We're using the port to get to SLSC" Michael said
"Micahel...about Honour" Jack began
"Not the time Jack, I'm not under your authority, I'm under Jasmine', Adrian', Emperor and Silver Line Space Corp. I do as I'm told without emotion, I had those removed before I took on this roll. If you're coming with us, move now, if not then get out of my way"
Jack was shocked. He looked at Jasmine and then left with Michael. Pitch accompanied them and Jasmine left with Chris.
Brendan opened the door to Jasmine and Chris, he had Adrian, Morgan and Chrissie around the living area on the carpet, alien medical dictionary on one side and a list,
"I have them looking up the counters, it'd take me all day otherwise. How's Owen?" He said
"Owen is on his way to SLSC now" Jasmine said
"You didn't go with?" Brendan asked Chris
"I have to look after Vera' lot while she's away" Chris replied
"We close to completion with this list?" Jasmine asked
"Done" Adrian said raising a hand as though in class
"Same" Chrissie said
"Yeah I'm about done" Morgan said
"OK you, Chris and Adrian go to the storage unit, Chrissie and I will head for the hub with Morgan" Brendan said
Adrian didn't know what to expect as they ventured into the secure storage facility. The notion that Jack was actually a practicing alien Doctor was news to him. He followed Jasmine and Chris into the elevator hidden behind a mirror at the end of the corridor and looked at all the minus buttons on the pannel to his left.
"What floor? What is all this?" Adrian asked
"-101" Jasmine said, "The first block of floors house objects and data confiscated by Jack or handed over to Jack by authroised personel only, found in the Doctor' possesson. They also contain within them something you're not aloud to see. Files on everything your future self has done to ensure what has been made public knowledge about the Doctor on Earth happened exactly as they perieved it to be. It also contains boxes with files containing tests Jack has put in place to test the loyalties of each Doctor 1-the present"
"Oh wow" Adrian sighed, "This alien practice?"
"It's not exactly legal. Jack can only open for 3 hours a day while Claw. This is because if T5H catch his signal while his Time Lord self is dormant their people, desperate for help and not under Pole' control will bombard Owen with messages and right now he's not in a position to help" Chris told him
"When you say bombard with messages?" Adrian asked
"Whatever he sees will come to pass here, people who die there...whoever is in the place that location sits in this city will die the same way" Jasmine told him
"Jesus!" Adrian exclaimed
Just then the lift stopped, the lights went out and the elevator doors opened to nothing but black fog,
"What's going on?" Chris asked trying to get the elevator to start again,
"Oh...shit, that smoke, it's a Time Lord resurrection on a being that never was a Time Lord" Jasmine said
Adrian used his sonic to light the space and screamed when he saw Uncle Ryan' face waving from side to side in front of them.
He and the smoke darted away and the lights came back on,
"Who'd bring him back!?" Adrian gasped
"Let's find out" Chris said
"You can't go out there!" Adrian screeched
"Becasuse we're safe in here" Jasmine said sarcastically
Adrian whimpered as they stepped out of the elevator and into the corridor,
"Ryan" Jasmine called
Ryan came right up into her face as a cloud of black smoke and then solidified,
"Where is Owen Harper?" He demanded, Adrian made to attack and got thrown down the corridor and into a wall at the far end, without Ryan laying a hand on him.
Chris got out his gun, Ryan grabbed is from him and tossed it so it landed and went off just beside Adrian' head,
"What do you want?" Jasmine said in question
"To save Owen from that God forsaken planet" Ryan said
"You want me to believe you want to help Owen when you just tried to kill the Emperor?" Jasmine said
"The Darlek' don't control me anymore, I don't want to care but I do" He spat, "And that was a warning, does it look like I need weapons to kill your son? I'm a walking TARDIS now"
"Who did it? Why?" Chris demanded
"To hell if I know, as for the who...who indeed?" Ryan smirked
"The Doctor wouldn't resurrect, he doesn't know how" Jasmine said
"Looked the a Doctor to me" He smiled
"I don't trust you" Jasmine said
With that she ported Ryan to the secure cell the cave man was residing in.
Ryan' screamed rang out all over Torchwood as he realised he had no powers here and a force was preventing him from porting out.
Brendan and Chirssie looked at each other in shock,
"Ryan" Brendan breathed
"He was revived by a Doctor" Chrissie said
"Which one?" Brendan asked
"Give me some time, I'll be baby sitting Honour tonight I can hack into my console from his secondary console" She said, "Should we tell Jack?"
"Not yet" Brendan said
Jasmine led Adrian and Chris into Jack' lab. Here they found every counter they needed and proceeded with the long task of placing the right quntity into disolvable bullets and placing thoes into an device similar to an allergy testing kit,
"Right, that's done, I need to get out of here...take Adrian back to the hub" Jasmine said to Chris
Adrian knew better than to back chat her mum about letting him go with her so he submitted
Jack sat worrying on a chair in a cosy staff room. He looked up when Michael came in,
"Michael...what's going on? How is he?"
"I need you to tune into him. I need you to use your telepathy" Michael told him, "There's increased brain activity, the memory section, it started off with him being shot at Pharm and now he's seeing moments, I need you to get him to come back to this life"
Jack nodded and followed Michael to the chamber that Owen was in. He entered a red tiled room with cylinders all around and one glass one in the centre, lit with a soft gold light. This was the one Owen was in.
Jack stood before him and took a breath,
"Owen" He said in his mind
"As long as humankind exist I will stand" Owen said
Jack was transported to the night in the hosptial when Owen beat death,
"As long as humankind exist I will fight!" Owen snapped
In Owen' hand appeared a sword,
Suddenly Owen and Jack were on the battle field and Owen was using his force field to aid his army. He was shot with an arrow, forcing Owen to kill everyone, then as they all fell he crouched and cried,
"I failed"
"No you haven't, this is just a simulation" Jack tried to tell him, "I need you to go back on yourself now, you know what to do when you get there"
"Collect the souls of the hidden for the many" Owen said, then looking up he said, "How?"
A drop of silver blood fell to the ground and a horse came of it,
Jack stepped back in shock,
"Can't be"
"What?" Owen asked weakened
"You bore the Soul Catcher, he's a ghost, a being feared by humankind and Time Lord alike, even the Darlek fear him, he's you"
Now Jack was watching child Owen on a bike with his aunt in Limerick,
"Tell Rose what you're going to be when you grow up dear" She said
"I'm going to be a Doctor, gonna make people better I am" Owen grinned goffily
Now Jack watched Owen' shock as he found a Torchwood file and shared it with Tosh,
"Mum worked for UNIT Tosh, she killed my aunt, says here my father' name is classified"
"I'm sorry Owen" Tosh said, sharing a look with Jack' earlier self
"Why are you sorry? Get your coat, I'm taking you to dinner" Owen told her
Tosh left to get ready,
"You love her" Jack' earlier self teased, "You want to hug her"
"Tommy' being woken up tomorrow, she's going to need me more than ever if the time lines merge" Owen said
"You think they will?" Jack' earlier self asked nervously
"Call it intuition...Jack?" Owen said
"Yeah?"
"Think I'll ever find him?"
"Maybe you already have" Jack said, Owen frowned, "Well, if he's secret service then he's always had your back and he always will no matter what you do or where you end up" He continued tapping his shoulder,
"Jack...I do love Tosh" Owen said
Jack smiled
"And I love you" Jack' earlier self and now self said at the same time
"I mean it" Owen said
"So do I" Jack said, "Just not like Ianto, it's a different love"
"You got kids?" Owen asked
"Three" Jack smiled, "One Granddaughter"
At that moment Tosh came back,
"Ready?" She smiled
"Yeah"
Jack was back in the chamber,
Owen was smiling slightly,
"It's working Jack" Michael said, "Jasmine' here, she's got the counter for him...she also says to tell you Uncle Ryan has been ressurected by a Time Lord"
Jack looked at Michael in horror,
"What did you just say?"
There was no time to explain. Owen was taken from the chamber and into a quarantine room where he was strapped and then shot by Jasmine, with the device full of counters. She then left the room and the room was locked and bolted.
The crystal bombs shot out of Owen and came for the glass. They dropped mid flight and blew up where their fell.
Now the coast was clear the Doctors were aloud in,
Jack looked at Jasmine,
"Ryan...really?"
"I'm afraid so" Jasmine said
As Owen was wheeled into the medical suite at Torchwood, Jack was surpirsed that Morgan wasn't there but then he and Jasmine heard Morgan' screams for help.
As Jack and Jasmine ran from the room they mist Owen take a gasp for air and the water in the tanks started to vibrate.
Jack and Jasmine found Morgan and Adrian tied up and the caveman dead. Ryan was standing over them,
"You do this to them and expect me to trust you not to kill us all!?" Jasmine snapped
"You!" Ryan said, looking past her to Jack, "Couldn't even face me when I was a threat"
He turned into black smoke, ran at Jack and fired him through the doors leading out of the corridor the secure cell was in,
"You not going after him?" Morgan asked as she untied him and Adrian
"He's got it" Jasmine replied
Suddenly the hub was quaking,
"What's that?!" Adrian screeched
"Owen!" Jasmine said eyes wide
They all ran but stopped on reaching the hub, Jack was glowing white and was going up against a black cloud. Ryan reappeared and retreated and then Jack lost his footing as the floor split and water started to pour in,
"Owen!" Jack screamed and he ran into the medical suite, Jasmine, Adrian and Morgan followed and Jack found Owen almost fitting, "Owen! Open your eyes, I've got you"
Owen opened his eyes and the quake stopped, then he started gasping, Jack instinctively took the mask and then checked his heart. Jack then stepped back a foot to let Jasmine check him over,
"He's alive...Owen' alive" She said
Tears filled Adrian' eyes,
Morgan looked at Owen in shock,
Owen then sobbed, years of bottled up hurt flooding to the fore. Jack grabbed him and held him and cried alongside him,
"You're back, I got you back" He said, kissing his head, "My miricle"