Author note: This chapter is dedicated to Rachel who keeps me sane, for a given value of sane anyway. Maybe on average she keeps me sane, if we ignore the outliers and concentrate on the median...
I digress. Onward with the chapter!
Six
The Light forced Aderyn's eyes to open though sleep dragged them down. That man, the one who called himself Captain, stood in front of the cell, and the Light could see the other, Ianto, hovering by the outer door.
"Past midnight now," said Jack, noting the yawn that tugged at Aderyn's lips. The Light snapped her jaw shut. "Tired, are we?"
"The host tires, we do not," replied the Light.
Ianto's voice drifted across the room. "Do you even know who she is?"
The Light turns Aderyn's head in his direction, fixing him with a burning look. "It doesn't matter," the Light said simply.
Ianto met Aderyn's eyes unblinkingly. The Light had to look away.
-T-
Aderyn could literally feel her control slipping away again, the loss emanated from her hand, tearing away her senses, shredding her nerves. She couldn't help the cry that escaped her lips, nor the tears that stung her cheeks.
"I don't want this," she told Jack, who was watching her with heavy eyes.
"No one ever does."
"It was horrible, being trapped inside."
"I know."
There was something in the way he said it. Aderyn found herself looking at him anew. He picked at his fingernails with renewed vigour, ignoring her inquisitive stare.
The internal garage door flew open and Ianto staggered through, weighed down by a large, sealed box.
"Don't get up," said Ianto, heaving the box across the room and putting it down by Jack's feet. "Wouldn't want to trouble you."
Jack was about to reply; Aderyn's shriek cut him off. Her hand wrenched itself from the door handle and her legs began to totter, obviously not under her control. She collapsed to the floor, kicking wildly and cursing as hard as she could.
-T-
"Since you won't leave her willingly," said Jack as he paced outside Aderyn's cell, "we'll have to take action."
"Don't you understand? We cannot leave her, to leave is to perish!"
"You survived in your ship," said Ianto from the doorway. Jack wouldn't let him get any nearer. "Get out of her body and back into that, then we chuck you back through the next available Rift spike, back where you came from, if you're lucky. Simple."
"We don't have to do as you say," said the Light.
"How long can you survive without a host or your ship?" Jack asked. "Just out of interest, you understand." He leaned against the plexi-glass again. "Not that long, I'll bet.
The Light just snarled.
Ianto moved then, coming forward to slip a small round shape into Jack's outstretched hand. A bottle, Aderyn told the Light. A water bottle, that's all.
Jack bent down and pushed the bottle through the slot at the bottom of the cell door. It made a sloshing sound, rolling across the floor to hit Aderyn's right foot. The Light furrowed Aderyn's brows, gaze flicking from the bottle to Ianto and finally resting on Jack.
"Drink it," said Jack, his tone clipped. "Drain it."
"Do we have a choice?"
"No," said Ianto.
The Light picked up the bottle, twisting off the cap with shaking hands. Aderyn, roiling in her mental prison, noted the slight bitter tang as the Light gulped down the liquid.
Drugged, she thought.
"Drugged," said Aderyn's mouth. A split second later the Light demanded, "Drugged?"
Neither Jack nor Ianto noticed anything amiss. They hadn't heard the difference in voice or seen the way the Light glared, and they couldn't know how Aderyn rejoiced inside her head, couldn't imagine the ferocity with which the Light forced her back down.
"Drugged," said Jack. "Just a mild sedative. Hardly anything to worry about."
"What will you do to us?" slurred the Light. "What's going to happen to me?"
Jack started, "Well, we're just going to—" but Ianto cut him off, ignoring Jack's protest and moving to stand between him and the cell.
"What did you say?" asked Ianto.
"I asked what you will do to us," said the Light. Aderyn's body swayed.
"I thought you..." Ianto shook his head and backed off. "Never mind, it's nothing."
Jack gave him a funny look as Aderyn's vision began to cloud over. Inside her head, the Light flailed, not comprehending the slow loss of control.
How the roles do reverse, Aderyn thought smugly.
The Light thought nothing.
While her consciousness fled, Aderyn thought she heard Jack say, "I'll carry her up. You get the machine ready."
-T-
Jack and Ianto stared at Aderyn writhing on the floor, wisps of light beginning to trail from her finger tips.
Ianto said, "I'll just put this into the car, shall I?"
Jack nodded mutely. He tried to concentrate on the peculiar way in which Ianto grappled with the heavy box, trying not to crease his suit, trying not to give in and ask for help, but he couldn't. Instead Jack found his attention drawn solely to Aderyn's wide, pleading eyes.
He knew that look. It was a desperate plea. It said, I want this to be over, please, just end it. Jack knew that look, he'd pleaded with many in his time, begging for the end. He knew that look.
Jack moved from his seat in a move so lithe that Aderyn would have been shocked had she seen, and he knelt beside her, gathering her twitching hands in his, holding her gaze. Softly, he said, "Come on, get up. Little way to go yet."
Aderyn felt her breathing relax and, with Jack's help, she managed to make herself stand again. He helped her into the passenger seat, went around the car and got in himself. Ianto waved them off.
-T-
Free.
Freedom.
Silence inside her head.
But wait—
"Cachu," said Aderyn. "Merde! Ah, my head... Bollocking bastard on a stick, that hurts..." Aderyn trailed off, aware of eyes watching her. She raised her head.
"Welcome back," said Jack.
From behind a computer to her left, Ianto said, "Shout a bit louder? I think some of the air beside my head hasn't turned blue yet."
Aderyn started to laugh. The sounds turned hysteric and were replaced by sobs. Tears streaked her cheeks: she cried for the pain and the confusion, the loss and the betrayal – for the bittersweet taste of freedom. Ianto moved toward her but Jack waved him away. He crouched by the chair that held Aderyn fast, began to undo the ties holding her.
"Is it over?" Aderyn whispered.
"Hopefully," said Jack. That was all he would say.
Later on, when Aderyn was safely entrenched on the sofa, coffee mug snug in her hands, eyes wide as she stared around the Hub, they explained everything: how they had used their mind probe to trap the remnants of the Light somewhere deep in her subconscious, how it wouldn't be permanent unless Aderyn forgot.
All those days. All those happy moments. All those nightmares.
"I'll do it."
Jack patted her shoulder, handed her a tiny white pill.
-T-
Jack tapped his headset, hands returning quickly to the driving wheel so as to keep weaving through the traffic. Saturday night in Cardiff: getting around was never going to be easy. "Ianto, any news on the Rift spike?"
"Yessir, we have one predicted not half a mile from the original site. Sending you coordinates now."
"You're a godsend, Yan."
"I try my best."
Jack turned his head to the side for a moment. "How you holding up, Aderyn?"
"Call me Adie."
"How are you holding up then, Adie?"
Aderyn lifted her hand. It curled into a fist as they watched.
"That's good, right?" asked Jack.
"Yeah," said Aderyn, "see, no, 'cause I'm not actually doing that."
"Ah."
Aderyn twisted her lips, watching the hand. Jack forced himself to pay attention to the road.
"What's the Rift?" she asked suddenly, forcing the writhing hand into her lap. "You and the Light both mentioned it before, I was wondering."
"The Rift," mused Jack. "Where to begin?"
Jack indicated left on the dashboard, and they turned onto a road out of the city. The traffic around them dwindled. Aderyn watched the street lights diminish in number while her skin glowed anew.
"The Rift is like a fissure in time and space, and it runs straight through the centre of Cardiff," Jack explained. "Things come through – fall through – every now and then."
Aderyn nodded, staring out of the window. "The Light called it the White Space?"
"There are lots of names for it. We at Torchwood just call it the Rift."
"And things come through? What kind of things?"
"Alien things."
Aderyn paused before slowly saying, "Right."