Author's Note: This is turning out to be a lot longer than I thought it would be! I guess that's a good thing. This chapter is slightly shorter than the others; I figured this would be a good place to stop for today. I'm fairly certain that the next chapter will be the final chapter. Thanks for reading, and thanks to those of you who have reviewed. Really lovely to see that you're enjoying it. The final chapter should be up tomorrow!

Disclaimer: Parts of this chapter are directly taken from Doctor Who Season Three Episode Thirteen, "The Last of the Time Lords". SPOILER WARNINGfor anyone who has not yet seen that episode. Everything quoted from that episode belongs to the BBC and Russell T. Davies.

Enjoy!

Chapter Three

Ianto landed against a metal cage, in a room glowing red. It was familiar – huge branches of coral supporting the domed ceiling – but also disastrously unfamiliar. He could feel, in the air around him, in the sickly whine that hummed from the machine, an undeniable wrongness.

The TARDIS felt as though it were screaming.

He heard Jack's voice, somewhere.

Jack.

Jack had just saved his life.

From outside, there was the sound of gunshots, and then Jack burst through the door – did his every memory involve a machine gun? – and paused to pant a few breaths. He looked terrible; his face and clothes were cut and burned, but he looked at the modified console with an expression of grim determination, and Ianto realized as he raised the gun that he was aiming directly for him.

He cried out and dropped to the floor, but not quite in time – and as he watched, his arms over his head, the bullets moved around him. They shifted their trajectory to miss him entirely, even though he was standing directly in front of the console as Jack came up the walkway, shooting wildly.

Smart tech.

Behind Ianto, the center console exploded into yellow flames, and he felt none of the incredible heat that he saw shimmering in the air. Then, there was a feeling like a kick to the stomach, and he sprawled out against the metal grated floor. He saw Jack fall, too, and followed his example of putting his arms over his head – only to lift them away when he realized that the TARDIS was repairing itself. The red glow began to fade, the metal cage around the console disappeared, and the damage done by Jack's gun reversed itself, all while the world felt like it was shaking apart.

In a moment, it looked exactly the way it had when Ianto saw it in the background of the Doctor's screen on the subwave network.

Jack stood up, let out a triumphant laugh, then ran out of the door again, slinging the gun away. Ianto followed.

They ran through white, unfamiliar corridors, littered with confused-looking soldiers, who stared at Jack as he passed. Ianto caught the view from out of a window – they were in the air. The Valiant?

It hit him. The confusion, the running, the looks of panic – this must be the day that the American president was killed. The day that Harold Saxon was murdered. This had happened while Jack was gone. This was what Jack had done.

His confusion mounting, Ianto skidded to a stop behind Jack as he pressed a button to open a door and caught Harold Saxon as he tried to run out.

"Woah, big fella! You don't wanna miss the party." Jack looked at the guards standing by the door. "Cuffs."

Ianto slipped through the door behind him and took a moment to take in the scene. An unsteady-looking woman in a red dress off to the left; the Doctor at the top of a set of stairs, looking serious; Martha behind him, looking – well, badass. Looking like a spy. And a group of people who looked like they might be Martha's family.

Jack stepped forward, dragging Saxon with him. "So! What do we do with this one?"

A man who Ianto assumed was Martha's father said immediately, "We kill him."

"We execute him." Martha's sister? She looked like she was prepared to do it herself; the way she said it, the way she stepped forward with purpose. But why?

The Doctor looked annoyed. "No, that's not the solution."

"Oh," said Martha's mother, as she raised a gun in both hands, her voice shaking, her eyes full of tears and absolute hatred, "I think so." The Doctor, behind her, carefully began to walk down the stairs, looking at the gun. "Because all those – things. They still happened. Because of him." What things? What happened? "I saw them."

Saxon, taunting, whispered, "Go on. Do it."

The Doctor stood beside her, reaching slowly for the hand that held the gun. "Francine. You're better than him."

She was, apparently; at the Doctor's touch, she fell apart, dropping the gun and turning her face into his chest. Martha ran forward to take her, and the Doctor turned toward Saxon.

"You still haven't answered the question," Saxon said, still held by Jack. "What happens to me?"

"You're my responsibility from now on. The only Time Lord left in existence."

Jack came toward him. "Yeah, but you can't trust him."

"No," the Doctor looked Saxon up and down. "The only safe place for him is the TARDIS."

You mean you're just going to – keep me?"

The Doctor nodded. "If that's what I have to do." He looked at Jack. "It's time to change." Martha. "Maybe I've been wandering for too long." Saxon. "Now I've got someone to care for."

And then, a gunshot.

Saxon staggered backwards. The woman in red – his wife, Ianto remembered - stared with huge, blank eyes, the gun in her hand. Jack ran for her, telling her calmly to put it down; the Doctor ran for Saxon, catching him as he fell, holding him in his lap.

"There you go, I've got you, I've got you."

Saxon ground out, "Always the women."

"I didn't see her."

Saxon breathed unsteadily. "Dying in your arms. Happy now?"

"You're not dying, don't be stupid, it's only a bullet, just regenerate."

Regenerate?

"No."

"One little bullet, come on."

"I guess you don't know me so well. I refuse."

"Regenerate, just regenerate." The Doctor, getting more and more desperate, more and more emotional, "Please, please! Just regenerate, come on!"

"And spend the rest of my life imprisoned with you?"

Ianto came closer, unable to help it. The Doctor had tears in his eyes. Who was Saxon? What was all of this?

"But you've got to, come on. It can't end like this. You and me, all the things we've done. Axons – remember the Axons? And the Daleks." The Doctor was losing control of himself; his voice shook, tears rolling down his cheeks. "We're the only two left. There's no one else. REGENERATE!"

Ianto didn't know the Doctor – had, in fact, a very mild grudge, so easily did he take Jack when it was convenient – but at this last word, he felt his heart break a little for the man.

"How about that," Saxon said, sounding delighted. "I win." His eyes widened; he tensed. "Will it stop, Doctor? The drumming. Will it stop?" His eyes widened further – his breath quickened. His eyes rolled back. He went limp.

The Doctor held Saxon's body against himself, looking angry, disappointed, and just – infinitely, brutally sad. He let out a horrible, anguished cry.

Ianto looked from him to Jack, and saw there a terrible kind of understanding. A kindred ache.

And then everything was gone.

- - -

Ianto was up to his shins in water. The hub pool.

The hub was a disaster area.

The table where The Thing had sat was reduced to twisted metal, thrown across the hub. The wall beside it was blackened, several inches of concrete shed, leaving a jagged crater. The tray Ianto had been carrying lay on the floor, the mug and plate shattered and browned from the heat. Everything within ten feet of the explosion looked like it had been on fire; it still smoked, the acrid smell of it filling Ianto's nose, lungs, making him cough.

Jack.

Ianto looked, half-panicked, unable to see him anywhere.

But, there.

The other side of the pool. Slung over the side. Thrown more than fifteen feet by the blast.

Ianto waded over to him, then grabbed him under the shoulders and dragged him out of the water, rolling him onto his back and kneeling next to him.

He watched him, waiting. Thinking.

Everything that had happened on the Valiant – that was when Jack was gone. That was what he had left to do. That was where he had gone running – across the Plass, to the TARDIS, caught by the CCTV. Ianto had played that footage over and over again during those months, trying to make sense of it. He hadn't known about the Doctor then. And even with what he did know, now – he couldn't explain what he had just seen. Harold Saxon, a Time Lord. Dying in the Doctor's arms. Martha's family, somehow broken, looking as though they'd been kept as hostages or – slaves. Jack; bloody, torn. Sad.

Time reversing itself.

Jack gasped awake and Ianto had to dodge away from his outflung hands. He sat up and looked over.

And Ianto was stunned to silence by the absolute relief on his face.

Jack just stared for a second, taking slow breaths, his eyes not leaving Ianto's. Then, a flash of apprehension over his features. He looked at the floor.

Ianto edged forward slightly. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," Jack said. He looked back over. "You?"

Ianto looked at him; shirt charred, trousers torn. Similar to how he'd looked back then. He opened his mouth, but Jack stopped him.

"Please don't ask."

He climbed slowly to his feet, not looking at Ianto. He started away.

Ianto stood. "Jack."

"Please, Ianto."

Ianto started after him. "Jack, please, just-"

Jack stopped and turned around. His face was calm, but Ianto could feel something beneath the surface – a dread, an undirected anger – that eked out with his voice. "I sent you back to keep you safe. I saved your life. The least you can do – the least you can do is not ask."

It was true, and Ianto could feel his frustration building because of it, a rough anger clenching and unclenching his fists. To guilt him. To guilt him into keeping silent.

Fuck that.

"The Valiant."

Jack's face flashed fear, anger and sadness all at once.

"I said-"

"I never asked, Jack," Ianto said through clenched teeth. "I never asked where you were when you left. And you never explained. But what the fuck was that?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It matters, Jack!" Ianto took a step toward him. "Explain what I just saw. Martha and Saxon and the Doctor. The TARDIS. That was time reversing, wasn't it? What happened? What did you undo?"

"It's nothing!" Jack shouted, his voice carrying through the still-smoking hub. "Leave it! It's better that you don't know."

"How can you know that?" Ianto came closer still, a foot away, staring down Jack the way Jack was staring him down.

"I just do."

"How?"

"Because I know better than you!"

Ianto didn't think before his fist connected with Jack's face.

He was left alone in the hub, breathing hard, angry breaths, staring at the spot where Jack had been.