Title: Battling Through
Author: Caz251
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: Pg-15
Character: Ianto Jones, Mickey Smith, 10th Doctor, Rose Tyler, Pete Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Lisa Hallet, Jake Simmonds
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Jack Harkness, implied!Rose/10thDoctor, implied!Mickey/Jake, Jackie/Pete
Summary: Ianto Jones battles through the battle of Canary Wharf, but he's still 'dead' at the end of it. Set pre-Torchwood, after Series 2 Episodes 8 and 9 of Doctor Who and during Series 2 Episodes 12 and 13 of Doctor Who.
Spoilers: General spoilers for Torchwood and Doctor Who spoilers for S2 E8, 9, 12, & 13.
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood or Doctor Who they belong to the BBC.
AN: Written as a sequel to Before The Battle, part of the Parallel Torchwoods Parallel Lives universe.
When Ianto Jones awoke that morning he never would have expected the day that occurred. He had kissed his lover goodbye before getting ready for another day at work at Torchwood London, Parallel Word or as he affectionately referred to it in his mind, hell. At this Torchwood he was a nobody, something that he didn't mind too much as he didn't care much for their policies or their politics. However being a nobody here meant that he was often kept out of the loop, and finding information was hard. As a junior researcher he was often sent into the archives to fetch and carry for the senior researchers , and that was where he was when the alert went through the building; they had captured the Doctor.
As soon as the alarm went through the building Ianto knew that the Cybermen would make their move today. From what he knew of the Doctor from Mickey, Pete and his own experiences with the man he knew that the Cybermen had no other option. Ianto sprang into action as the news travelled the building; it was time to put their prearranged plans into action. Glad that he was alone in the archives Ianto switched on the netting device he had in his pocket. He had four others; one in each corner of the archives, all linked together and linked to the one he had in his pocket.
A web of golden light filled the archives as it stretched to cover everything caught between the four netting devices, making sure that he had a strong grip on the small device in his hand he hit his transporter, taking him back to his own Torchwood, back to the very bottom levels where he would house the archives from Torchwood London of a parallel Earth. The whole level had been left empty to allow for easy transference of the data when the time came. Some would call it stealing the fact that he had just taken the whole contents of the archives to another world; Yvonne Hartman would definitely see it as a treasonable offense. To him though it was economical, he doubted that Torchwood London were going to survive the cyberman invasion, and this would save lives as they now had access to much more information.
While he was in is own Torchwood he made his way quickly to Lisa to inform her of what was happening on the parallel Earth, asking her to inform Pete and put their troops on standby for a jump to the parallel Earth when they were needed. They all knew the signal that Mickey would send back if he found things were getting too out of hand and that he needed reinforcements. Ianto then grabbed his own weapon from his office before jumping back into the fray that would be one of the biggest battles on Earth in which the humans were just an innocent bystander in a way, not that he knew that of course.
As far as Ianto was concerned this was just going to be a battle against the Cybermen, he had no way of knowing that what was waiting for them in that void ship was nothing like he had ever imagined. He made his way quickly up to a level of the tower that he would be able to be useful from; he had to help Mickey when he needed it. He knew that Mickey was a lot more capable than he thought himself, as a result of the putdowns he had been given by the Doctor and someone that Mickey referred to as Captain Cheesecake, but that didn't mean that he would leave the man alone without back-up. That's what they were on this mission, despite them being from different parts of the institute and on different levels, on this mission they were partners, they were each others back-up.
He took a few back passages, that cost him quite a bit of time, but also made it harder for him to be detected by both Torchwood and the Cybermen that Ianto knew would have been sent as the advanced guard. As he made his way towards Mickey's location he added various bits of tech that he came across to his pockets if he could, his suit pockets having been tampered with so that they were a spatial temporal hyperlink straight to Lisa's office back in his own Torchwood.
He got to the floor above the room with the sphere and began to make his way down, knowing that he could make up some excuse about being sent for some files, even in the madness that was the Doctor's arrival the Tower was still working. There was nothing else for it, there was no way that they would stop working, even for the apocalypse, at least that was Yvonne Hartmann's opinion. He had just got to the level below, and was about to come out of the stairwell when he heard the doors to the sphere room explode.
He skidded around the corner in time to watch Cybermen and members of his Torchwood making there way into the room where the sphere was being kept. The Doctor was in there with Mickey and Rose and four things that he had never seen before, but he had heard reference of them in the Torchwood archives. If he was right then they were Daleks and they were in worse trouble than he had thought they were in. He made his way to them just in time to greet them as they came back through the doors.
"Situation report." He barked of Mickey, despite being partners he was still a Director of Torchwood and he had authority over Mickey, regardless of the fact that Pete was there as well. Mickey gave him a quick rundown of what had happened since they had last spoken, not two hours before the Doctor had arrived. The whole situation seemed outlandish and if someone had told him about it he would have thought them mad.
Ianto shared a quick look with Pete, everything that was needed to be said was spoken in one moment of eye contact. Pete then sent Jake and his team off to secure the stairwell and make sure that they were covered to escape knowing that the Daleks wouldn't be long in leaving the sphere chamber, especially now that this great weapon of Time Lord design was activated. He and Mickey took the lead, despite being the Head of Records, Research and Development he was very adept with a gun and he and Mickey were the youngest there which made them the best at a shot of fighting. Up ahead where two Cybermen that they quickly dispatched, finding a blonde woman on the other side of them, one that Ianto immediately recognised as Jackie Tyler one of the scariest women in the universe, or at least in his universe. Despite being one of the Directors of Torchwood one of the major hidden powers Jackie Tyler petrified him, especially if she was in one of her moods.
He and Mickey stood back a bit to allow her reunion with Pete, even if they were not the Pete and Jackie the other knew. Ianto could give them a few minutes despite the seriousness of the situation; he knew that he would give anything for a few minutes with Jack, even though he knew it was impossible. The other man was most likely knee-deep in Cybermen himself trying to lead Torchwood Three through the chaos. Ianto just hoped that he was okay and that he was with his team, from what he knew of Torchwood Cardiff they were a family and they protected each other, he just hoped that Jack had been back in Cardiff when everything kicked off and not on the road. Although he hoped the man was safe and with his team he almost wished that he wasn't that he was here instead, because Ianto had a feeling that the time they spent together the evening before and that morning was the last he would ever see of the man.
Soon they were off and running again, needing to make their way towards the Directorate level of Torchwood London to see what it was exactly that the Daleks were after and what they were doing. They made a quick stop so that the Doctor could pick up some of the antigravity clamps that he knew Yvonne often boasted about, and then they were off again. They were about to head up the stairs to the top floor when Jackie pointed out how many floors that actually was and Jake reappeared again. His team had secured the surrounding area and had found and secured the lifts, something that in his state of worry and uncertainty Ianto wouldn't even have thought of doing.
The Daleks had a prison ship, one of Time Lord design, bigger on the inside indeed. Millions of Daleks just waiting to be released unto the world, he just wanted to scream, there was nothing that he could do, not for the people of this world, both Cybermen and Daleks fighting a vast war with humanity trapped in the middle of it. It may be selfish of him, especially as he knew that he wouldn't have to deal with the battle itself or the aftermath, he and those from his world were being sent home to safety, but he wanted Jack there with him. He had been right after today he would have no chance to be with the other man that he had rapidly fallen for. The Doctor intended to seal the breach between the two universes which would stop the global temperature from rising in his world, but it would also make inter-dimensional travel impossible.
They jumped back to their own dimension before the Doctor started the programme to pull the Cybermen and Daleks back into the void, none of them wanted to be trapped in hell after all. They watched as Rose protested her kidnapping as such, but the Doctor obviously wanted her safe, something Ianto could understand, he knew that he wanted Jack to be safe. He watched as Rose disappeared back to her own world to the Doctor's side and he couldn't help but feel envious, he couldn't do that, he had responsibilities here. She gave up her mum, Mickey and a chance for a father in Pete, just to get back to the Doctor. All he really had in this world was Lisa and Torchwood and he was sure that his best friend would understand if he left to go to Jack, even if she didn't know about him. He couldn't though, Torchwood was his life, both his and Jack's they both had a duty to their own Torchwood and nothing would change that.
Pete had disappeared and reappeared just as he came out of his musings with Rose in his arms, the transportation devices burning out as the walls between the universes sealed themselves. He watched as Rose cried against the wall, railing at the injustice of it all, and he was tempted, so very tempted to join her. He couldn't though, he had a job to do, he started to order those who weren't Pete or his family, Mickey and Jake included off of the floor, sending them home to recuperate before coming back to write up their reports. He then made his way down to his office where he knew that Lisa would be waiting for him to come back, most likely with a strong drink already prepared for him. It was tradition, something that they always did; if one of them was on a mission the other would always have a drink ready for them when it was over before they took them home for the night.
Lisa wasn't the company that he wanted tonight though, the only person he really wanted was Jack, but he knew that was an impossible thing, it would never happen. It had been less than a day ago that they had met up, went to dinner, a show and to bed. He imagined that if he thought on it he could still feel the other man in his body, but the gruelling day he had been through took away from the pleasure of the night before and early that morning. The fact that it was their first time together was made bittersweet by the fact that it was also their last. He drowned the drink that Lisa handed him before allowing her to escort him out of the building and towards their flat.
Once settled on the couch they began to speak, Lisa settling back to listen as he talked out the last few months, of infiltrating Torchwood, of wishing he was anywhere but there, of meeting Jack. He spoke for hours, telling his best friend his sister everything, hoping that if he told someone that it would make everything seem more real, his time with Jack seeming more like a dream now that he was no longer with him. He wondered if the other man would even remember him in a few months time, Captain Jack Harkness's reputation was well-known after all. Then he wondered whether the man was even alive, he didn't have the luxury of knowing that, the man may have been deleted by the Cybermen while trying to protect Cardiff and his team.
He spent the rest of the evening with Lisa drowning his sorrows before getting up the next morning for another day as the Head of the Torchwood Institute. It was a position that he wished at times that he didn't hold, that way he could have made decisions with himself as the main focus, but instead he had to put his world first. Then again, if he hadn't been the Head of Records, Research and Development he may never have gone on the mission and met Jack in the first place. The first thing on the agenda when he got to Torchwood that day was a debriefing with everyone that had been involved with Project Parallel, including Rose and Jackie Tyler.
The debriefing was just routine, but it was necessary. They had lost a few of their own men to the Cybermen and the Daleks, but not too many people had suffered more than a few scrapes. Throughout the meeting he had focussed part of his attention on Rose Tyler, he could tell that she was going to self-destruct sometime soon if she didn't have a purpose and after a quick non-verbal conversation with Pete he decided on his course of action. "Miss Tyler," He began, trying not to startle her, "There is a place here for you at the institute if you wish it. I know you have a great deal of experience when it comes to aliens and alien technology. The jobs yours if you want it. It may not be travelling the universe and saving it as Mickey has told me you have done, but Rose Tyler defender of the Earth doesn't sound too bad."
A small, almost unnoticeable smile crossed her face and he was glad. He knew exactly what she was going through, he felt the exact same as she did at the moment, but without purpose he would be nothing, he had that purpose, it wouldn't hurt to give someone else purpose as well. He would bring her into his department, he could tell that she wouldn't be too pleased about being put in Pete's department, he could see her having an aversion to guns, and place her under his and Lisa's wings. Hopefully she would learn to fly again, and maybe just maybe, she would help him to find his wings as well.