A/N: things are moving along.

Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian


Jack was overpowered with sadness looking at Mark 7's erection. It resembled the original one to the last vein trailed on the surface.

"So that's what's left of me…" said Ianto Mark 7 thinking how he didn't remember Ianto anymore, like he never thought of him, like he let him get lost in time, like he never was.

Jack smiled chasing away that sadness from his eyes. It wasn't right to be so sad over it after so many years. Why was he so sad about it? Because these Flesh Iantos brought the smell of him with them, they brought his movements, his maneuvers, his vowels. If he did embellish some things over time, they set it right reminding Jack of how determined and sarcastic Ianto truly was. Jack had grown sentimental and old and he'd only get older.

"Hey" Mark 7 startled him from his thoughts "don't go crying on me" he said covering himself up. "I can't hug you if you do and that's frustrating."

"Hug" Jack lifted a crocked smile. "I remember how I was annoyed by those before our Hub blew up, they became a habit and I thought I was too used to dying to be hugged after every waking."

"Thanks" Mark 7 deadpanned "that hug was just a day ago for me and yeah, we noticed."

"You did?" Jack was surprised. "I never said anything."

"Like you have to talk" Mark 7 smirked. "That face of yours is like a mirror for thoughts. I could never understand how the others couldn't read it."

Jack smiled and shook his head.

"And you hugged me anyway, why? For punishment?" he was amused.

"No" Mark 7 squirmed under the blanket and Jack knew his problem. If he could read Jack's face, Jack could read his body. He had an erection he couldn't shake. That happened to Ianto from time to time, he just needed a hand… maybe… "We probably thought it would mean something to you despite your defense."

"It probably did" Jack said absently not wanting to admit how he missed that the most when it was gone, you never notice how a small thing like that can get under your skin. He decided to gamble, he never played it safe anyway.

He swiftly moved his hand and took Ianto's penis in his hand.

"Hey!" Mark 7 shouted and Jack released it instantly.

"Did that hurt, or were you just surprised?" he inquired carefully.

Mark 7 lay down, relaxing.

"Surprised I guess" he said reluctantly. "That was a hell of a risk" he reprimanded him.

"Well I'm notorious for those" Jack smirked "can I give you a hand with that or is that too strange?"

"It is strange" Mark 7 pulled his blanket to his chin, this one wasn't gray but black, Jack was sad again.

"Sorry" he got up and turned to leave.

"But when wasn't it?" Mark 7 stopped him at the door. Jack turned around to see him uncovered. "This damn thing isn't working properly. Maybe they manufacture us with an intentional flaw, I just can't shake it off."

Jack gave him a crooked smile.

"Well that wouldn't be surprising" he said, approaching, assessing the problem at hand. "It looks fine at external examination."

He reached for the blanket and carefully covered his hand in it before putting his fingertips on his exposed member. Mark 7 gasped.

"The firmness seems fine" he said and took it in his hand.

"Wouldn't that thing scrub away my skin?" Mark 7 was worried.

Jack smiled moving his hand gently.

"This is the future" he said cheerfully "some things are shit but they've developed real care for some details. Blankets are now multifunctional and can be used quite creatively in solitude, or company. These features aren't really in commercial but as usual everyone is in tuned with what 'no friction and sleekness' means in practical matters."

Mark 7 closed his eyes and relaxed under Jack's fingers. Jack didn't rush it, there was sadness and fondness in this. A small thing he could do for Mark 7, finally something he could do for any of them. The real Ianto wouldn't mind. He would mind all the commotion and the wreck but this he wouldn't mind.

"So" Mark 7 spoke up in a conversational tone, not opening his eyes "what's with you and Trianca? Is she… helpful towards you?"

"Trianca?" Jack laughed out loud. "A woman who is scared of liquids? It would be dangerous to even sweat on her let alone something more substantial."

Mark 7 opened his eyes slightly watching him thoughtfully.

"Vren?" he inquired seriously and Jack wondered where he was going with this. Was it possible that this version was a jealous one?

"With his hands?" Jack lifted his eyebrow. "Those are built to destroy, not to caress, I doubt that his species can mingle with anyone beside their own kind, I've heard their intercourse can be intense, even worse than those of Trianca's kind when they trounce lousy lovers to pieces."

"They do that?" Mark 7 looked worried but his member didn't falter, it liked the attention, Jack continued the movement like something familiar, not something forgotten.

"No, probably they have other reasons for that" he shrugged his shoulders. "Why are you interested?"

"Trying to understand your new crew I guess, where they fit, what they are to you" Mark 7 examined his face as if he was searching for something.

"To me?" Jack asked surprised. "Nothing to me, they are just a crew the Shadow Proclamation gave me for this mission."

Mark's 7 eyes were now wide open.

"You mean to tell me you're traveling alone on a ship with some random strangers you don't even know, let alone trust, and jump to hives full of Flesh not knowing if they will turn on you at some point?" his member did falter now and Jack stopped his movement.

"You remember I can't die? Right?" Jack frowned.

"Damn right I remember!" Mark 7 frowned and his voice got strong with anger. "I remember quite well how you screamed after they blew you up, how you shivered after that concrete broke. Don't act like you can't be hurt, that there aren't worse fates than death."

Jack went silent for a moment observing his frowned, disturbed, not pretty anymore face, and he remembered clearly why he loved the man he was made after so much. He cared, like his original did, and he worried. Jack let his member go and supported his fist on the edge of the bed. For his worry he did deserve an explanation.

"It's safer that they don't know me" Jack said not looking at him. "They don't know how extensive my condition is, for them I'm just recovering extremely well. And lately I found that the less people are invested in me, the less vengeful and creative in vengeance they are later. Besides when the task I'm up against isn't personal, like this with the Flesh isn't personal, then strangers unrelated to me, or the tasks are a better choice because I can't be manipulated through them."

"Like you are manipulated through me" said Mark 7 tiredly sighing. "Why are you telling me all this, for all you know whoever made me could be listening in?"

"No" Jack shook his head. "I scanned for transmissions, there weren't any, with any of you. Whoever this is is smarter than that. You lot have an agenda of your own, but I'm sure that someone is wrong about your impact on me."

"Of course they are" said Mark 7 sadly. "It's just a part of your history, why would it matter?"

Jack opened his mouth to say something but this wasn't Ianto before him so he closed it, he had nothing to offer or promise.

"But this mission we're on now is different" Jack continued his explanation. "This, with whoever is controlling your Hive is personal, that's why I can't rely on strangers, that's why I need you lot. You I can trust."

"Trust?" Mark 7 laughed bitterly. "Why would you trust us? We're not even real, we're someone's puppets, products on the line that someone can just switch us to bad when we're there."

"No" Jack said firmly. "You're not puppets of any kind. You're real as Ianto was, you, all of you are Ianto as much as he was. You are replicas, but perfect ones, even you don't know you aren't real until you've been told so. You're in control of your actions and no one can pull your strings like you don't have a mind of your own."

"And Mark 2?" he demanded not accepting his speech without retort.

"He chose to do that, and his choice did buy us time to retreat from a hostile Hive, and that Hive wasn't hostile after that" Jack said firmly.

Mark 7 frowned.

"Now it sounds like we have superpowers" he said ironically. "We're not Wonder Woman, we're just… guys, he didn't singlehandedly persuade a whole Hive to leave everyone alone."

"It looked like that from my perspective" Jack folded his arms across his chest.

Mark 7 looked at his arms and Jack noticed a change under that abandoned blanket. He reached down and continued his movement, Mark 7 didn't stop him. He closed his eyes again.

"You always were prone to romantic illusions" said Mark 7 mockingly.

"I was not!" Jack defended himself and then he noticed the smirk in the corner of Mark's 7 lips so he relaxed, he was pulling him.

"Far from it" Mark 7 relaxed. "Did you ever take Ianto to a place with a window and a view of the ocean? It's a pity we can't remember that instead of that horrid thing with unison children."

Jack stopped his movement stroked by regret. He never did that, and Mark 7 didn't know how close to Ianto's death he was. He was now older than Ianto ever was.

"I'm sorry" Mark 7 touched his sleeve. "I didn't mean to pry. It's easy to forget it doesn't concern me."

"That's how I knew not risk too much, with this blanket thing" he started on the matter of touch to distract himself. "With Mark 2, when he came through, even after the initial shock, havoc and dismay, on his part of course, when we scanned him and showed him the results he refused to believe he wasn't real. I mean he is real, but for him it wasn't real enough to be a second version of himself. But after he calmed down, I tapped him on the shoulder and there was no reaction, no pain, he patted me on the back when we avoided a fleet of Cybermen floating around. That's why we had no warning. I was warming up to the idea of a version of Ianto on board, if nothing else to talk to. Whatever it might seem, I loved to talk to Ianto, he listened, and you lot listen as well. So when we came to the Hive, before we landed, I said 'welcome aboard', just as a formality, to set our arguments aside and do our job, like we always do. I put out my hand, and when he took it he just had this expression of anguish and pain and he slowly went to his knees by the force of it. I didn't realized what it was, what caused the pain, so I didn't let go, and he couldn't, his hand was constricted, his muscles useless. And I crouched beside him asking him what's wrong and he couldn't speak. Trianca ran to us, Vren knelt beside him. I couldn't remember to even try to let go, but Trianca got it. She was pushing me and shouting at me to let go. I was hearing her from a distance, I think Vren finally pushed me away and Mark 2 stopped shaking. I was looking at him across the floor as he realized what this meant, that he really was Flesh made. I don't think he really believed it until that moment. I saw the horror and distress that caused him and I could feel my hand numb by my side. Then I knew what you were, I didn't know more would come through, but I knew. You were a trap. Not a trap as persons, no. That someone knew you and I too well for that. If your personality was altered I would know. You were changed physically enough to be my opposite, to clash with my energy and drain it. I don't think the creator of this meant to inflict pain on you, or didn't care about it enough to check. It was meant to drain me of energy and leave me defenseless. If Mark 2 wasn't in pain, I wouldn't have even noticed until it would have been too late."

Mark 7 was silent for a moment.

"So" he started with his ironical intro. "You're telling me that someone replicated me from your past, programmed me to drain your energy like a leech, seduce you into bed, then you would be drained from my super sexual powers. What then? Someone would zap in and kidnap you? Can't they do that on a regular day? With a regular lover? It sounds gothic to me. Besides, isn't that just an ordinary task of sex, to exhaust you enough to take a nap? Besides why take me? It's random, they could choose any of your past lovers; you're sentimental enough to react to any of them."

Jack watched him for a moment while things to say crossed his mind, but why would he burden Mark 7 with them, with the weight of regret and sorrow.

"You're probably right" he said feeling weight on his chest.

"I didn't mean it like that" Mark 7 tried to ease the tension.

"How did you mean then?" Jack looked at him, suddenly angry. "That I'm a sentimental old fool that would shag any old lover that would come through that door. That I can be seduced by any odd stranger? That I sleep at night? Maybe I didn't think of sex on the spot. Maybe I am older than when you knew me, but I don't remember thinking of shagging everyone in sight all the time. Maybe I would just hold your hand trying to save you from falling off a cliff until I would be too drained to continue. Maybe I have creative enough enemies to be considered from every angle. And yes they could send any old lover, but they chose you. That worries me. Maybe you're not meant as a leech; that may be coincidental. Maybe you were made just to die in front of me seven times."

"You mean six" said Mark 7 quietly. "There are six of us."

"Seven, with Ianto, there will always be Ianto on that list, he did die in front of me and someone wants me to experience it again" he said sternly and he saw Mark 7 shiver under his gaze. "And that maybe makes me think of gothic plots, but it is just as frightening. I can be hurt in more than one way like you nicely pointed out."

"So why take us all in to face it?" Mark 7 diverted his gaze looking miserable.

"Because I trust no one more, and because this is a connected enemy, someone invested in me. If you must die over it wants me to see it, I want to be there, like I was… When Mark 6 dissolved himself he was desperate and I didn't know what he would do, but he looked straight at me while he did it, and I saw him, like I always see Ianto. Determined to protect me even from himself. I hate that, I hate that moment and that memory, but sometimes sacrifice is necessary, sometimes bigger things are at stake."

"So what are you saying?" Mark 7 frowned deeply. "That I should follow his example and just dissolve to rid you of the inconvenience of my existence."

"No!" Jack shouted. "Never, not even if that means me dying a few times, many times, no! I was too harsh on him, too out front, but I wanted to protect you all, to make you go away, to be away of this twisted plot that has been put in front of me to lure me in."

"So why the change of heart?" Mark 7 whispered. "Why do you want to bring us all in?"

"Because you weren't meant to survive for long" Jack said clenching his jaw hard, feeling the weight of it. "You lot come through with a ticking clock on you, you have an expiration date. We managed to stop that clock, at the moment you arrived we scanned you with a frequency that stabilized your cells so you wouldn't dissolve so easily. Mark 6 reversed that frequency, I made a mistake of showing him how it works when I explained the whole process. So you're my jokers they aren't expecting. Besides it's your Hive, what happens there will affect all of you. You have the right to be there."

"So, what you're saying to me" Mark 7 lifted his eyebrows and moved his head slightly downwards looking serious "is that you're old, without an interest in sex whatsoever, and that you can't set me off because you forgot how?"

He offered his innocent face and Jack felt the swift change inside, from anger to determination.

"You little wanker you" he growled and grabbed his member lowering his face in alignment with Mark's 7 face, he could feel the ghost of his breath on his face. "I can set you off in a second, you wouldn't stand a chance if all this wasn't so entangled."

"So" Mark 7 lifted one eyebrow ironically "you can't do it because of all the entanglement around us, I understand" he squinted at Jack and he lost it.

"I know your cock better than you know it" he said and moved his hand purposely. Mark 7 closed his eyes, moaned and threw his head back exposing his neck. "You stand no chance against me, with your little jokes, you want me too much for that, and what we can't have always drives us mad, doesn't it? Why else did you hide here? You wanted what you saw and it's out of reach, but you can smell it can't you?"

With that he moved his fingers in the right way and Mark 7 twitched in orgasm.

Jack kept his hand in place until Mark 7 relaxed.

"You can go now" Mark 7 said without opening his eyes and Jack regretted he couldn't see them, he loved Ianto's eyes after release, but this wasn't Ianto and it was probably best this way.

"Sure" he said quietly and withdrew.

"And Jack" Mark 7 stopped him at the door "I really do appreciate the assistance."

Jack smiled and shook his head.

"I guess that counts for something" he said and exited.

In the corridor he felt disoriented. Why the hell did he do that? Things could get pretty awkward when the other Marks came aboard, but this was a version of Ianto, if anything, he surely knew how to keep a secret, even from himself.


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