A/N: Ok, after a pause, longer one, we continue and play some in Doctor Who references ;)

Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian


When they landed on Malcassairo Jack paused thinking of the Doctor and the ruins this city would fall into, but he wasn't the one to dwell upon the future that might be and already way.

"Will you go out with me?" he asked Trianca knowing the answer. She just shook her head. She had no desire to face he adversaries again. Her race lost the war against Malmooth and she had a personal feud with insects living in this city too. That got them in trouble last time, the trouble Mark 3 got them out of by crashing that shuttle into their hive-city.

"What are you waiting for?" Trianca turned to him as he didn't move.

"For him to exit" he said heavily "I have no desire to go inside among your blue relatives that hide their fierceness underneath their tho-politeness."

"Tho-poiteness?" she frowned.

"Oh, yes, that still hasn't occurred. I wonder how that happens. Maybe some wicked witch cursed them" he smiled.

"Again with the wicked witch" Trianca got angry. "I don't have the power to curse them, and if I did I wouldn't just make them be polite."

Jack looked at her confused not sure what she was talking about but he imagined it has something to do with Mark 7, who else would mention witches. Jack smiled remembering Ianto's wit, it made any day bearable. Maybe Mark 7 got enough of his wit to be entertaining company. Unlike Mark 3 who seemed to receive all of Ianto's anger. With that he exited, dressed in beige desert suit looking at the ship sternly like he could drill a hole in their hull.

"And off we go" Jack sighed and exited to face him.

Jack armed himself against Mark 3 but still wasn't ready for his deadly stare. It was a stare like the one Ianto gave him after they revealed Lisa in their basement. The one that told Jack that he was still the monster in the world, that he hasn't been forgiven, that his sins only piled up with time.

"We're going to save your hive" Jack spoke up knowing Mark 3 wouldn't yield and talk first.

"My Hive?" Mark 3 barked out and Jack wondered why he kept his scar, he could easily erase it, maybe it was makeup but Jack couldn't reach out to check. "I didn't make any Hives, why are you bothering me? I have a life here I don't need you."

With that a group of Malmooths exited and made a circle around his back protecting him. Jack couldn't help but smile at them, he knew how they would all perish as with all other living beings but in their wake they will change, adapt and become a less hostile race. Maybe even Mark 3 would be a part of that even if his anger was at his peak now. He'd surely remember his more peaceful side.

"No you didn't" Jack said not looking at his too familiar face. "But that Hive made you and if we don't manage to secure it you'll just melt down before your loved ones."

The blue Malmooth woman flinched behind Mark 3 and Jack offered her a broad smile. She was cute and he wouldn't mind her company in bed, Mark 3 obviously adopted some of Jack's views on race, it was just a matter of rearranging some parts. He never got to check how Malmooth race rearranged their parts, they obviously weren't so skittish about fluids as Trianca was.

"You're just saying that" Mark 3 drew his attention standing between him and that cute Malmooth that provided comfort for him.

"When did I lie to you?" Jack said coldly.

"Many times" said Mark 3 taking a step closer staring at Jack. It was always disconcerting to stare in Ianto's eyes like this and Mark 3 used it against Jack where real Ianto would step down and find a distraction.

"That's harsh" he got serious. "If nothing I was too blunt with you, and what do you have with lies, I might say to the real Ianto, that wasn't you."

Mark's 3 face flinched a bit but he didn't back down. Jack thought he'd punch him and maybe that would be a good thing but then Mark 7 appeared standing between them.

"So sorry, we haven't met" Mark 7 extended his hand to Mark 3, smiling Ianto's polite smile. "You look so much different from Mark 2, I thought he looked bad ass but you look legitimately pissed. I didn't know I could look that way at all."

Mark 3 looked at his extended hand and withdrew his hands in disdain.

"Look, they made a polite one, did this one get a special attention from our master and commander?" he snorted and Mark 7 stood there too surprised and just burst out in laughter.

"I love this" he said and Jack thought how he was still affected by their earlier encounter, which pleased him some. "A real warrior type, you're the one that crashed the shuttle I bet. I still haven't done anything memorable, but I doubt I will. Is it nice here? Would you mind if there were two of us wandering about afterwards, when we get that notorious villain in the shadow?"

Mark 3 just stared at him for a moment and then looked at Jack.

"Is he for real?" he asked with disbelief. "Did you explain to him what he is? How we came to be just to hurt you? Doesn't he remember instructions and the pain?"

"I still haven't touch Jack if that is what you mean" Mark 7 talked on. "He did tell me and it is inconvenient not to be an original but I don't think we should dwell too much on it, what is the last thing you remember? Do you think we're all made at the same moment, or was it variations of moments? Maybe that's why we're so different, last thing I remember is going out for groceries after the Hub blew up and we saved Jack… Ianto saved Jack. I was walking on the street when…"

"Yeah, yeah" Mark 3 interrupted him. "We all have the same sad story how we've been plucked from that awful day. It's the best day to get away from if you ask me and look at us, we look the same, we were all taken from the same day, or the imprint of us was taken. There was no need to do it on multiple occasions because the Hive remembers all her memories, it is all one, the noise. Here there is no noise and I would mind if you walking around here, I don't want you in my head, I don't want anybody in my head ever again, but I'll go with you if that means you'll find a planet of your own to pest about."

"I don't hear you in my head" Mark 7 frowned. "There would be no need for this chatter if we heard each other in such way."

"It's because there's no Hive around us" Mark 3 crossed his arms across his chest. "What, they decided to keep you unconscious until delivered to Jack, how's that working for you? At least I managed to remember the creation chamber and the pool of our origin, what do you have? You're made empty to indulge him, to sway his mind, you don't have a destiny of your own, a mission, you just have him, like Ianto had only him. That's no way to live, you need to wake up and remember who you really are."

Mark 7 watched him for a few moments.

"No, I don't believe I want that" he said finally turning to Jack. "Can we go, this one is of no use to us, if he gets to the Hive with us he might join the mysterious villain, for all we know maybe he's still in touch with them, maybe he has a mission he's too cowardly to deliver."

"You won't pull that Ianto thing on me" Mark 3 yelled at him. "I'm Ianto as much as you are, of course I'll help you. Why would I be on a mission, didn't I get away, didn't I leave him unscratched, although my mind told me I should butcher him to death and then deliver him to the creation chamber on Alfava Metraxis."

"Alfava Metraxis?" Jack frowned. "You never mentioned that before? Are you sure? There were never Flesh factories on Alfava Metraxis only that famous shipwreck they made movie about, what was it called, but that probably hasn't happened yet. What century is this again?"

"I have no idea" Mark 7 shrugged his shoulders.

"37th century, 3657. To be exact" Mark 3 deadpanned. "But what it is to you when all your memories are shambled and missing. When did you watch that movie?"

"Back home on Boeshane Peninsula" Jack smile remembering the movie, it was the first movie he went to watch by himself. "It was a crash, quite famous and not too old, so no it hasn't happen yet, that means Aplans still aren't extinct. I'll get to see them in their two headed glory" he grinned.

"Jack" Mark 3 said with a thick accent like Ianto did when he would do something really stupid. "They have a trap set up there for you, they won't kill you, there is something far worse there."

"What?" Jack leaned into his face but he saw only frustration in Mark's 3 eyes.

"I can't remember" he said squinting his eyes looking like he could cry. "I try and try but only that one image comes to mind, a ceiling of some cave, a pool of creation and the voice telling me what to do."

"The flesh was talking to you?" Mark 7 inquired and Mark 3 looked at him startled.

"No, the flesh was in my head still, I could understand it even though it didn't use words, it was like I was flesh and was Ianto at the same time. The voice came from another side but I never saw it before I woke up on the ship before Jack. I couldn't make out but it was something familiar in a voice like I had heard it before" Mark 3 was rubbing his forehead looking miserable. "I was like you before the shuttle crashed. I was empty from any purpose. But when I was injured the memories surged to the surface and I decided to stay here where no one is in my mind where that voice can't reach me" Mark 3 turned around towards the blue insect lady.

"Then you stay here, we know now where to go" Jack put his hand on Mark's 3 shoulder knowing his clothes was real and that it'd spare Mark 3 the pain of his touch. "And maybe Mark 4 has more information we could use."

Mark 3 still flinched in surprise turning his profile towards Jack.

"I'll go with you" he said hoarsely. "I can't sit here not knowing in which moment I could turn into liquid before these people. Give me a minute and I'll join you. But if we succeed you'll return me here when we finish."

"Of course" Jack nodded and turned towards his ship. Mark 7 followed him.

Inside of the ship Jack leaned on the wall closing his eyes. It was so hard to stand and carry on like he can do this. What if…

Mark 7 touched him on his shoulder and Jack opened his eyes to see him with his shoulders lifted, his hands shoved in his pockets and his lips pressed together looking to the side like Ianto would before he would offer something inappropriate.

"What if" said Mark 7 reflecting Jack's thoughts "we all hear Hive voices when we arrive and stop being like Ianto and become homicidal alien beings more imaginative that our human adversaries. I'd hate to see you explode, buried, cemented, butchered or who knows what else again. Why don't you just walk away from this one? We're not Ianto anyway, he had his life, he had you, you had him, and you know we're just copies and not really good ones."

"They would still follow me like they do now" Jack stared at him wishing that he would look at him. When Ianto would divert his gaze Jack could never read him properly.

"Or we could just bomb the site from above and get rid of all of it, other Hives can't reproduce new Ianto's" Mark 7 frowned deeper and Jack wanted to hug him, it was irresistible the desire to just pull him near. He looked like Ianto too much, it was painful to look at him.

"No, like I said, you're not poor copies, and even so I'm on a mission to negotiate with Hives, to bring peace and stop gangers from replacing humans in this hidden war. We must live together, we can't just evaporate a whole new species. In the end who knows which of us will last till the end of time. Maybe you're the better versions of us because you can heal, you keep your scars and cuts just for show not for real need for healing."

"Really" Mark 7 touched his scar on his cheek, the one Ianto died with "my body obviously hasn't realized that yet."

"You probably need to crash into something" Mark 3 said entering with a bag on his shoulder. "It did a trick for me. I got rid of that silly scar and made this beautiful one that looks like a moon, Chatalla quite likes it."

"I bet she does" Jack pushed himself off the wall and followed two versions of Ianto into the ship that could be so fun scenario if the one who made them didn't make it torture. "Where do they have their fun parts?"

"Wouldn't you like to know" Mark 3 smirked and Jack felt how the ship moves, they were already leaving Malcassairo.

Jack paused by the window and looked down on the huge live city surrounded by desert and took into the view. The end of the universe was far away and if he was lucky he wouldn't have to see it again, if he aged surely there was death for him somewhere down the path. Maybe even at the Hive pit. It wouldn't be the worst death ever to die looking at multiple Iantos above him.


Gathering allies :)