TITLE: To Separate The Lies From Truth
PART THREE OF SERIES: The Five Elements (AU Verse)
CHAPTER SUMMARY: Spoilers :)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Torchwood or Doctor Who which is unlucky because Jack and Ianto deserve so much more!
WORDS: 2750
Notes: Apologies for the cliff-hanger again but the chapters up as promised and it all comes to a head! (Almost) Enjoy!
Chapter 10: Unearthed (2006)
26th December 2006
His head pounding was the first thing Ianto registered as he awoke, followed by vibrations around him, and opening his eyes, he recognised the dark, enclosed space of the trunk of a car. His hands and feet were bound with rope and his mouth gagged. Old memories taunted him with their horrors and for one moment he could only be grateful Lisa hadn't pulled a sack over his head. The minimal light through the cracks was the only thing preventing him from panicking.
Ianto swallowed around the gag. It tasted rancid and had dried his mouth out, the combination causing him to cough as he tried to roll onto his back, but there was no room to manoeuvre.
He had no recollection of how long they'd been driving, but eventually the car drew to a stop, the vibrations reducing as the engine shutting down. The muted clunk signified the car door opening and closing, but expecting Lisa to draw closer to the back of the vehicle, he was surprised when footsteps faded away into the distance.
Two sets of footsteps returned minutes later, and he screwed his eyes shut at the sudden light of a torch in his face as the trunk opened. The lack of breeze and noise meant he was no longer outside, so even without the gag there was no sense in calling for help.
The torch-light dropped away from his eyes, finally allowing them to reopen. As he refocused on his surroundings, he recognised the familiar layout of a simple residential garage, and he swallowed roughly at the thought of how confident they must be to risk hiding in plain sight, but that realisation became worryingly insignificant as his second captor stepped into his eye-line.
"Miss Hallett." Dr R Tanizaki spoke for the first time. Ianto tensed as Lisa appeared beside him and pulled out a knife, but she only cut the rope around his ankles before pulling him out the trunk. He briefly wondered how the hell the small woman had had the strength to carry his drugged weight into the boot to begin with, but he clearly wasn't about to find out as she forced him onto his feet and shoved him harshly forward.
The sudden change of orientation resumed the pounding in his head, but after years of torture at the hands of Torchwood One, Ianto knew pain was only a hindrance if he let it win. He forced his head upright as he was yanked forwards towards a large metal door, and dug his feet into the ground, halting their movements momentarily. Angered, the woman simply released her grip, almost sending him crashing to the ground.
Focused on regaining his balance, another sudden and forceful shove forward sent him stumbling through the doorway into a stairwell leading into the basement. As far as he could see in the gloom, there was no other exit apart from the metal door behind him, but nevertheless Ianto stopped struggling. Falling down the stairs would not be beneficial to him at this point.
At the bottom of the staircase, the woman gave him another shove forward, but it was the final straw as his injured leg gave out under him, and he landed hard on the floor. Ianto rolled, trying to sit up but was earnt with another sharp kick, this time in the ribs, forcing him still.
"That's enough of that," Tanizaki snapped. "You're damaging the goods. Go on, get out of here. Your payment will be finalised by the end of the day. "
"I want double." Lisa negotiated, giving another kick for the sake of it before the assault let up. "You didn't say he was bloody psychic. He saw through me the moment he sat down."
"You're lucky you're getting what you already are." Tanizaki didn't even look at her. "Out, now. Before I forget that extra that I promised, which depended on him being delivered unharmed."
The woman stormed out in anger, finally allowing Ianto to catch his breath. He tried to refrain from moving but the basement air was cold, and he shivered uncontrollably, each small movement sparking a fresh burst of pain around his body. The floor was especially cold. He could feel it seeping through his clothes, chilling his side that was lying pressed against the ground.
Tanizaki moved across the room to crouch in front of his eye-line. Ianto dragged himself up into a sitting position, refusing to let the other man intimidate him.
"Intriguing." Tanizaki mused, distractedly. "Miss Costello didn't mention anything about psychic abilities alongside the others."
"I'm not psychic." Ianto ground out stubbornly. To be frank, it was actually the truth. His empathic abilities didn't mean he could read anyone's private thoughts, only their emotions. Other than Jack of course, but he felt their bond was a different story entirely, and even then, the thoughts had to be directed in the other's direction.
Ianto was however surprised at the mention of Suzie, but he supposed it made sense. Other than Jack, Suzie was the only other person, outside of those that had perished at Canary Wharf, that had known about his abilities to have told his captors.
The confusion he'd felt drowning him the past months as he struggled to believe Jack's supposed betrayal, changed into another flood of guilt as he realised that he was in fact the betrayer. Jack had done nothing but be honest and he'd repaid him like this, trusting a simple piece of paper and black ink rather than his own lover. Or was that ex-lover. He didn't expect Jack to forgive him, his only hope was that Jack's own hurt at his choice few words earlier, didn't delay him from noticing Ianto was missing. Not that he felt rescue was anything that he deserved in that moment.
Tanizaki simply hummed in response, before standing and collecting something from a nearby shelf. He returned, dropping the folded item in front of him, before releasing the rope around his hands. He couldn't read much from the other, his shields at their strongest, but while the act at first had confused him, he soon understood.
"Put that on." Ianto didn't move, staring defiantly and his captor's eyes flashed dangerously. "Now!"
Slowly, Ianto complied. He didn't think it was worth the effort of arguing on something so minor as an outfit at first, but unfolding the garment he soon wished he hadn't. The black material consisted of a full body jumpsuit, that left no skin below his neck uncovered.
And - judging by the material – fireproof.
It was a few sizes larger than him, and thankful that he didn't have to manoeuvre more than he needed to, he pulled it on over his damaged suit, watching warily as the scientist reached to uncover a pair of heavy shackles attached to the wall behind him. Something of which he'd seen more than enough of in his lifetime.
"You know…" Tanizaki started, conversationally as he fastened the metal bands tightly around his wrists. "…you're the only one across the whole world that I've ever seen with powers like this. I never thought I'd get the chance to study, to work with anything like this."
"Glad to be of assistance." Ianto snarked, rather sarcastically as he pulled hopelessly at the shackles. If it wasn't for the jumpsuit, he'd be able to escape within minutes, but as designed, any small fires he tried to spark in his palms couldn't penetrate the tough material.
"Now what's with the cynicism." Tanizaki chided. "I was under the impression you had no idea what had caused your powers, something of which falling for that little scheme with Lisa solidified. Don't you want to find out?"
Ianto might not have been able to spark a fire, but that didn't prevent his powers completely. He let them answer the question for him, generating a huge gust of air that sent Tanizaki flying backward into the opposite wall.
As the air settled down however, he realised how rash he'd been without actually having a plan. He still couldn't escape from his restraints, and he knew Tanizaki wouldn't be out for long. Weakened as he was, the gust hadn't been powerful enough to kill him.
Old deep-seated fear, long since buried from his captivity at Torchwood One rose once again to the forefront of his mind as he braced for the inevitable reaction from his captor. Sure enough, only moments later his thoughts became clouded by pain and torment as electricity flood through his body from the metal around his wrists, and his muscles seized viciously. Even with his high pain tolerance, he felt himself almost black out, but before he could drift into the oblivion of unconsciousness, the spasm suddenly diminished into slight tremors as the energy dissipated.
"Let's not attempt that again, shall we?" Tanizaki struggled to his feet, a remote Ianto hadn't noticed before in his hand, before straightening his suit. "I may not look fit and young to you, but you'd do well not underestimate my science." The Japanese scientist squatted next to him, removing a penlight from his pocket, and flashing it into his eyes. "Now, while you recuperate from that little antic, perhaps I can get my initial evaluations."
Blanking out the rest of the examination, he had no idea how long had transpired since it'd started. He could feel the power intensifying inside him, with each passing minute he was trapped, but there was no way to release it.
He reined it in, having learnt with Jack after a mishap in a hotel room so long ago, how to keep his powers in check while his emotions ran havoc, but his control was wearing thin and the next sudden sharp sting from Tanizaki tests - minimal in comparison to his earlier electrocution - was just enough to slip his concentration.
A pipe burst in the corner of the basement, and water began to run freely and heavily down onto the ground.
Ianto saw in slow motion as Tanizaki pressed the button on the remote once again. This time he couldn't hold back a scream, as the pain seared through him again and his power did the one thing he couldn't, breaking free of its confines inside of him.
The ground shook violently, the basement walls and building above collapsed around him, and darkness descended.
~ * o ~ * o ~ T ~ o * ~ o * ~
When he next squinted open his eyes, he was pleased to feel that the electricity flooding through the restraints had come to a halt. The lack of pain however, meant he hadn't hit his head, and he wondered what had caused him to lose consciousness. The answer was rewarded as he wiped fresh blood from under his nose.
Now this was just humiliating, Ianto thought as he remembered what had happened. It was the second time in less than a half a year that he'd been caught in a collapse – the first time pinned under shelving units in the archives, and now under the rubble of a house basement. At least this time there was no fire raging toward him.
He was coated in grey ash, but most of the rubble had otherwise landed around him, rather than on top, something else he felt was an improvement from last time. However, it didn't seem quite natural that all of the building had missed every part of him, and he chalked one up to his abilities' instinct.
Looking around, he faltered at a sight not that far away. Tanizaki clearly hadn't been as lucky without his gift to protect him and was almost completely buried under rubble, steelwork, and brick. There was no way anyone could have survived under that, and despite everything that had occurred he couldn't help but feel some remorse for having killed someone so agonisingly. Only a little though.
Luckily, the shackles were no longer connected to any wall, but the heavy metal chain still joined his wrists, limiting his range of movement, and he awkwardly fought against the zip of his jumpsuit, before struggling out of the garment.
Sparing only a brief moment as he broke out his restraints to consider when he'd become so accustomed to the act of melting metal, Ianto he pushed himself upwards. His injured leg strained under his weight and he cursed the lack of his cane that most likely lay abandoned in Roath Park, but he didn't need to get far. His phone was gone, probably having been collected from his suit pocket when he'd first been drugged, but it didn't matter. He was surrounded by houses. Someone had to have been alerted by the collapse.
He scrambled out of the rubble of the building, into the cold air of the December night. Having been in the basement when it had collapsed, how quickly he reached the front yard only went to show full extent of damage his power had caused. He couldn't recall whether he'd ever used this much at once before.
Just as he'd cleared the last of the wreckage however, a shadow, cast from a nearby streetlight, appeared in front of him. At the same time, he sensed movement from the side, and the feelings of anger and exasperation battered at his already weakened shields. He recognised who it was before he'd even looked up.
'Why?' He'd thought Lisa had gone. The feeling of betrayal from her matched what he felt himself for how he'd treated Jack. He'd spent over a month messaging her. Has begun to think he'd found a friend who knew what it was like to have powers unlike anyone else, but it'd all been a lie. She'd done her job, why was she still here.
"I don't leave before I know my money is in the account." Ianto hadn't realised he'd spoken aloud. "But now he's dead and it looks like I'm not going to get any. I might just have to find another way." Lisa grabbed him by the collar of his suit jacket. "I'm sure someone else would be every interested in what you can do."
Ianto fought against Lisa grip. He was still drained from the collapse, and not knowing whether he could withstand another bout of his ability, he instead struck out with his uninjured leg, kicking her hard below the ribs – the irony of the act after earlier not escaping his notice.
Lisa doubled over at the attack, staggering back a few steps but she kept a tight grip on him, recovering quickly enough to hook her arms around his throat in a professional headlock, squeezing mercilessly before he could try escape her hold. He guessed her aim was to cause him to pass out rather than to kill him, but the act left him gasping for breath as the world began to tilt nauseatingly around him.
His free hand reached out blindly, landing on a large rock from the rubble beside them. Feeling himself slipping into darkness for probably the 5th time that evening, he stuck hard against the back of her head. The pressure released instantly as the form fell limp, the sudden stop of the flood of emotions flowing from her, a clear indication she was dead.
He rolled onto his back, coughing roughly in an attempt to regain his breath as the gate to the yard flew open with a crash. He barely had time to judge the poor timing as armed police and dogs streamed in, shouting and barking, most of it in a heavy Welsh accent, which Ianto couldn't quite decipher, their guns aimed towards him. Blankly, he blinked at them for a moment, staring at the dead form of his abductor before they dragged him away from the body.
Dazed and spent, he let them manoeuvre him until he was lying flat on the ground, his arms behind his back, the bloody stone dropping from his hands onto the grass beneath him.
"Dogs found another body in the rubble. Read him his rights and get him to the car." One of the policemen said, some unknown time later when the words finally broke through his thoughts. "But be careful of the evidence. This is a high-profile case."
He tuned out the rest of the words as they cuffed and manhandled him out of the garden, leaving the collapsed remains of the building behind them.
Shaking from shock, Ianto simply sat in the back of the police car as they drove, staring ahead unseeingly.
Notes: Nope, I haven't learnt my lesson – another cliff-hanger! (But you have to admit it could have been worse haha) Chapter will be posted tomorrow. Promise!
Love all reviews, including any constructive criticism. This plot was hard to write.
