Doomsday: Post Apocalypse
a Torchwood story
by RoadrunnerGER
Dislaimer: Oh, really! They're the BBC's.
Summary: Ianto comes to Cardiff for a week to help with the archives, but is it as simple as that? Jack/OC, Jack?Ianto
Suspense/hurt/comfort – T – Ianto Jones & Jack Harkness
A/N: Oh, with the last chapter I forgot to thank sandysan and a guest for leaving so nice comments. Thank you!
Thank you, everyone, for sticking with the story! I tried to keep the wait after the latest cliffhanger short. Thank you, mandassina, for the beta-work! I know you're so busy lately!
Happy Easter, Everyone! Enjoy!
Chapter 27 – Down the rabbit hole
Owen did not think that he had ever seen Jack move that fast. Before anyone else could react, he was at Ianto's side, stopped his fall, and laid him gently on the floor. He had loosened his tie and opened his collar when the medic tried to push him away.
"Jack! Let me help!" Owen yelled at their boss.
Strangely, his words stilled the captain, and when he looked up at the medic, his eyes were full of pain.
"I don't think you can," Jack hoarsely said.
"Oh, really," Owen huffed. "Now who's the doctor?"
"You are… and a good one," Jack said. "I'm afraid this is nothing physical, though. Help me by taking him elsewhere, a place where we can be on our own."
"Jack!"
"Not what you're thinking!" Jack erupted. "Now help me!"
"Just let me check on his vitals, okay?" Owen tried to calm him, reaching out for Ianto's carotid pulse. "Wow, his blood pressure must be going through the roof! He belongs in hospital!"
"Your medicine can only treat the symptoms," Jack shook his head. "But it can't save him."
Hearing the finality in Jack's voice, all colour drained from Owen's face. They did not know much about their enigmatic captain, but one thing that Owen knew for sure was that he would never indulge his penchant for melodrama at the risk of his team members' welfare.
"But what happened?" Owen tonelessly queried.
"Later," Jack told him firmly. "Now we need to help Ianto."
Jack's tone now brooked no objection and Owen obeyed, giving him the space he needed.
Only when he gathered the young man up in his arms and stood, Jack realized that they were surrounded by people. The Brigadier wordlessly signalled his men to stand back while Sarah-Jane took the microphone to address and assure the crowd.
"Come with me, Jack," the Brigadier told him.
The Brigadier went first, his mere presence making curious people, who wanted to know what had happened or offered their support, move away.
"Out of the way!" Owen shouted, as he followed right on the Brigadier's heels, ready to make space for Jack who cradled an unconscious Ianto in his arms.
The Brigadier led them past the command centre to another truck and ordered everyone present to leave.
"Okay?" he asked.
"Thank you, Alistair," Jack rasped as he strode past his friend and to a narrow bed that could also serve as a stretcher. Carefully, he lowered Ianto on it. On the periphery of his vision, he saw Owen linger about.
"Will you tell me what's going on?" the medic prodded.
"I'll explain later," Jack told him firmly.
"Tell me the gist of it!" Owen snapped. "I need to make sure he receives the appropriate medical treatment!"
"Except this is nothing you can treat, Owen," Jack softly said.
Owen could not help but think that the captain looked scared. Jack was not sure if he could provide the help he promised and that put Owen on edge.
"What is it?" he yelled.
"PTSD?" the Brigadier mused aloud.
"Sort of," Jack nodded, elevating the Welshman's legs in order to make him as comfortable as possible. "It's an empathic kind of backlash, and now, please, stop pestering!"
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Owen asked, eyeing the medical equipment the truck was stuffed with. "Monitor his vitals or something?"
Hearing the desperate will to help in the medic's tone, Jack caved.
"All right. Monitor him. Warn me if you feel it to be necessary, but don't interfere. I need to focus solely on Ianto."
Owen agreed.
"I need to go back," the Brigadier softly told them, "but I'll make sure you won't be interrupted."
Absently, Jack nodded as the Brigadier retreated.
"I was afraid that something like this could happen," the captain nervously muttered to himself as he opened Ianto's belt buckle as well as button and zipper of his trousers. "Astonishing, really, that he did not lose it when he was stuck in that conversion unit. When he seemed to be all right, I started to believe that I was mistaken, that he would manage on his own. I was so wrong…"
Owen listened to his rambling while he took Ianto's blood pressure.
"I was right, Jack!" he urgently told him. "The measurements are going off the dial."
"Oh, stop exaggerating," Jack scoffed. "He'd be dead already. Could you keep that stuff to yourself?"
"I can't just ignore it!" Owen frayed, searching for a nitro spray or capsules. "I've got to do something!"
"I'm about to, Dr. Harper," Jack snarled. "I could be helping already if I wasn't constantly interrupted."
The captain could see how being unable to help ate away at the doctor.
"Believe me, I know what I'm doing," Jack tried to assure him. "I already sensed his talent when I first met him. That's the reason I wanted him in Cardiff."
"Oh?" Owen was confused. "So your carnal instincts had nothing to do with it?"
At that, Jack just glowered at him.
"Ever done this before?" Owen pushed as he still was not convinced.
Biting his bottom lip, Jack cocked his head in an undecided motion.
"Not quite this… but I know how it should be done," he said. Still guilt and anxiety carried in his voice. Two expressions that made Owen aware of the gravity of the situation. "I hope I can guide him."
This time, the medic refrained from prodding, as he could see how Jack tried to concentrate. Ianto's blood pressure was way too high, his features ashen, and his breathing shallow. They had no time to lose.
xXx
Jack's heart beat in his throat when he finally turned his attention solely on Ianto. Despite his assurances, he was not certain if he could pull this off. Yes, he made mental connections before, truth was, though, that he had never had to act in a case of emergency. If he could not connect with Ianto now, everything might be lost.
It scared the crap out of him.
That Owen was scared as well did not help.
How much more scared must Ianto be?
Taking another deep breath, Jack laid his left hand on Ianto's shoulder, beneath the shirt, his right hand came to rest on the dark brown curls, and he closed his eyes. The physical contact was not exactly necessary, but in his opinion a reassuring touch could not hurt.
Please, let me in!
It was harder to get in touch with Ianto than Jack had thought. His own mental abilities were limited and somewhat rusty. During his long stay on Earth, he rarely met people who could respond to him that way.
C'mon, Ianto! I know you're scared. Don't reject me! Please, give me a chance to guide you!
All of a sudden, he was enveloped by darkness. Jack's heart skipped a beat. There seemed to be a presence in the dark that he could not spot. His attempt to sense it made Jack shiver. The cold crept from his fingertips over his hands, up his arm and down his body to his legs. It was so horribly similar to his own experiences that he feared he might be too late.
It was then that he noticed a faint shimmer that seemed to come through the crack of a door. Carefully, he approached and reached out. Before he could find a handle, the door gave way under his soft touch and Jack fell head first.
Hands!
Hands all around him!
Hands a-thousands!
Hands of metal.
Hands of flesh.
Hissing of hydraulics.
Jack fell through a tunnel of hands that reached for him, but none could stop his fall. Endlessly, it seemed to go down. Twisting his body, Jack tried to take one of the hands, but slipped past at every attempt. Suddenly, it was dark again.
Miraculously, his fall slowed. Maybe it was just the dark that made him feel like it slowed. Once more, he turned. Then his feet touched soft ground.
Where the hell am I?
At once, he berated himself for cursing. That would not help. Instead, he did his best to exude strength and security.
Ianto?
No sign of him.
When Jack tentatively started to move, he felt the floor beneath his feet sink. It felt like walking on moss, and his shoes made wet noises. Gradually, his surroundings became lighter and Jack realized that the tunnel was a dark red. Partially, it looked like flesh that merged with the straight lines of a corridor. As he proceeded, the bizarre dreamscape put him on edge.
Suddenly, Jack froze in his tracks.
At the t-crossing far down the corridor stood a figure with a familiar shape. Jack thought he recognized the profile, but something was odd about…
"Ianto?"
When the younger man turned his head to look in the captain's direction, he realized what was wrong. A cyber-helmet covered his head.
Oh, crap!
Heavy stomps sounded when the Welshman strode away. Jack followed and turned left… running into an outstretched arm. The metal hand clamped down on his shoulder, electricity shooting through his system and paralyzing him.
"Argh! Ianto!"
In his half-converted Cyber state, the young man seemed at odds with what he was doing, his blue eyes wide with terror. Before Jack could make out anything more, he collapsed at Ianto's metal feet.
"Ianto," he croaked. "Please. I'm here to help."
Terrified of him or of what he had done, Cyber-Ianto backed off and merged into the flesh wall.
"Damn!"
Jack scrambled to his feet and tried to follow, but the flesh would not let him through. Instead, he had to avoid wires shooting toward him. His attempt to run down the corridor became increasingly difficult with the wobbly ground that bounced beneath his shoes. Cables and wires stuck out everywhere, crossing with tubes and bars. An ugly gurgling sound mixed with the whining and hissing of machines, creating a disturbing soundtrack to this nightmare.
Where did he go?
Desperately, Jack searched for a way to get to Ianto. Proceeding through what seemed to be a biological, yet cyber-augmented version of Torchwood Tower, the captain cast about for the young Welshman. Rounding another corner, he stepped into a white-tiled corridor, brightly lit by neon tubes. Reflexively, he threw himself to the ground, rolling over his shoulder, in order to avoid a Dalek's blast.
"Exterminate!" it shrieked.
Pulling out his Webley made no sense as it was utterly useless against the Dalek. Its bullets would not even make dents in the alien's armour. Screaming with rage, Jack charged at the oversized pepper caster, running zigzag to avoid the deadly beams and making it past the attacker.
"Ianto?" Jack shouted as he dove through an opening and found himself in darkness. It was cold and silent. For a moment, Jack stood and wondered at the sudden change of location. Then he heard a faint sob. Somewhere in the darkness seemed to be a frightened child. Jack searched for him but could not even tell if he got any further in the dark. He could not find the child either.
"Ianto!" he softly called. "Where are you? You're safe now. Come to me."
His cajoling words got no reply. On the contrary, Jack felt the repulsion. All of a sudden, the ground beneath his feet gave way and he fell into darkness, landing on something hard and sliding down in spirals until he shot toward a concrete wall.
Stop!
Protectively bringing up his arms, Jack smashed into the wall, miraculously coming out on the other side where he found himself in what looked like a factory. Almost deafened by a cacophony of buzzes, hisses, drills, screeches, howling, cries, and screams, he struggled to focus. On second sight, though, Jack realized that he landed in a cyber-conversion-facility. Stacked like honeycombs, the conversion chambers stretched to an endless corridor.
"Ianto?" Jack called out in search of the Welshman. His own heart was beating wildly in sync with the machines, while anxiety corded up his throat. "Ianto, where are you?"
Running from chamber to chamber, Jack examined the aisle. Whenever he looked into a cubicle, he was confronted by horrifying scenes. With every second, his own panic rose, his breathing turned to ragged gasps and his vision blurred.
xXx
"Jack?" Owen cried out with fright.
Ianto's body arched off the thin mattress and fell back, shuddering and jerking. Jack's stance and expression were not encouraging either. His breathing was just as laboured as Ianto's and his eyes shut tight with concentration. By now, he had a death grip on the young man's hair and he rather supported himself on Ianto's chest than resting his hand there reassuringly. It was obvious that he worked hard to do whatever he was trying to do.
Once more, Owen entertained the idea of administering an injection, even though he clearly recalled Jack's order just to monitor them. Seeing Ianto's condition now, though, he could not help but wonder if it was not a mistake to just sit back and let Jack have his will.
His pulse's racing. I bet hissystolicreading's ranging aroundtwo hundred.
Owen knew that he risked a heart attack or a stroke. Yet he did not know exactly what was going on. If he acted on impulse, he might make it worse… or lose him.
His sense of duty being torn between his Hippocratic oath and his trust in Jack, Owen watched the bizarre scene, only to see Ianto arch once more, a silent scream escaping his lips.
xXx
By a hair's breadth, Jack would not have recognized Ianto and gone on to another conversion chamber. Trapped in the cyber-machine, his limbs exchanged with cyber-parts and his terror-contorted face framed by the horrible helmet, Ianto screamed with breaking voice. Jack's heart clenched painfully as he strode in to shut down the conversion unit, if not the screaming.
It was a heartbreaking sight.
Ianto's body was partially covered with metal straps, wires sticking out everywhere. From his pelvis down his legs had been replaced with artificial limbs, and the same applied to his arms. The young man strained against the clamps that held him and screamed unstoppably.
To Jack's horror, the machine restarted, cutting at Ianto's body, sparks flying and blood spattering. His attempt to stop the unit failed and he helplessly had to watch Ianto writhe in agony.
Knowing no other way, Jack threw himself between the mechanics of the conversion unit. Ignoring the vicious stabs into his body, he grabbed Ianto and kissed him.
xXx
Repeatedly, Ianto's body jerked. Still, no sound came over his lips. Owen could see, though, how the eyeballs flicked beneath the lids. It was like he was caught in the throes of a nightmare. One that he could not escape by startling awake.
The readings he got worried Owen more and more. Against Jack's order, he pierced a capsule, ready to squeeze out the drops into Ianto's open mouth, when the captain sagged over the Welshman's now limp body.
xXx
When their lips met it was not just sparks that flew but the air around them crackled with electricity, bright lights dancing in circles, surrounding them in a swirl and sucking them into a Rift storm.
Jack's arms protectively wrapped around the Welshman's form, they shot through lightless space like a rocket. Fireworks exploded around them, scattering the stars into the dark.
That was when Ianto pulled away from Jack. The disturbing sounds of the cyber-factory returned with a vengeance, the confines of metal armour rapidly closing in on them, squeezing relentlessly until the bones cracked. Despite sensing his repulse, Jack dove into another kiss and the sun appeared, vaporizing the cyber-parts.
This time Jack backed off.
"Come with me, Ianto," he said. "You're safe now."
"I'm not!" the young man sobbed.
Jack still could feel the cold in him and see the terror in his eyes.
"Then let me take you to the safest place I ever knew," he suggested, gently taking Ianto's hands. They drifted toward a comet and as they sailed through its tail they entered another Rift storm.
xXx
Fixed to where he sat beside the cot, all Owen could do was stare.
For a second, he had thought that Jack had collapsed as well, but then he realized that while he leaned heavily on the young man's chest, he did not exactly slump. Gradually his position even straightened again, while his eyes remained closed and his breathing slowed.
To Owen's astonishment, he saw Ianto's readings return to a normal level. Only then, he dared to relax slightly.
xXx
"Where are we?" Ianto asked as Jack released him from another kiss. Their surroundings were strange, the room empty except for the weirdest pieces of architecture Ianto had ever seen. "This the safe place you told me about?"
"Yes," Jack nodded, withstanding Ianto's attempt to pull away from him. Comfortingly, he rubbed his thumb over the back of the Welshman's neck. "Safest place in the universe."
"Where is it?" Ianto demanded to know, still trying to comprehend what happened and to make sense of the unfamiliar building with its nearly organic structure of pillars.
"Right now? I don't know."
"But…"
Helplessly, Ianto trailed off. Something still put him on edge, no matter how reassuring Jack's words. So far, he could not pinpoint it. If someone would have asked him to describe it, he might have said there was 'a spirit'. It was an unearthly feel that made him certain about another's presence. It soothed him and he had the courage to take a deep, if shuddering, breath.
"That's it, Ianto," Jack praised. "Relax."
"I'm scared," Ianto whined. "What happened?"
"Your mind turned against you," Jack explained. "But here you can rest now. Here you can heal."
"Heal?" Ianto muttered, confused. "From what?"
"Sensory overload," Jack stated. "Being confronted with the place of origin of recent traumatic events, your latent empathy was flooded with too many emotions for you to handle."
Ianto looked even more confused and focused on the more tangible thing, "What is this place?"
"The TARDIS."
xXx
Seeing Ianto's pulse slow to a normal level, Owen had a closer look at both men. Jack's features still wore a mask of concentration, while the young Welshman appeared more at peace now. Owen listened to his breathing, which was still a bit erratic but gradually evened out. Still they seemed far from returning to the present, which raised the medic's anxiety a notch. As it had worked so far, though, he trusted Jack to bring them the rest of the way, and waited, if not patiently.
xXx
"The Doctor's ship?" Ianto gasped and Jack nodded.
"Isn't she beautiful?"
Ianto was not sure about that and wanted to remark that he did not see much of the ship yet when the scenery changed, a very prominent pillar, circled by a console with numerous displays, buttons, and handles, appearing in the centre of the room. A pretty, young blonde leaned against the desk, chatting animatedly with the man who sat on a cushioned bench beside the console. He had a wide, infectious smile, astute blue eyes, and short cropped, dark hair. Casually clad all in black with jeans, a v-neck t-shirt and leather jacket, the man did not appear alien at all.
Alas, Ianto could come only to one conclusion, "Is that him?"
"Yes."
A chill ran down Ianto's spine at hearing the captain's voice loaded with sentiment. The captain seemed to feel rather nostalgic about the Doctor. Then a wave of ambiguous emotions surged against him, robbing him of his breath. Just for a second, he heard a voice singing in his head before his surroundings dissolved.
Once more, Ianto found himself in a conversion unit, screaming with agony. It lasted for a couple of horrifying seconds, then he was sucked into the metal frame, plunged into darkness and falling. Something caught his fall and he felt wrapped in thick fabric. His head was swimming with a terrifying spinning sensation. As the whirl finally slowed, the room they previously were in came back into perspective.
Still unbalanced by nausea, Ianto leaned into Jack's embrace.
"What happened?" he rasped.
"It's your mind failing to cope," Jack told him, brushing a hand over his hair soothingly. "The onslaught of emotions simply is too much for it."
As a matter of fact, Ianto was threatening to lose the fragile control he currently had. He could feel it slip.
"Help me," he muttered and felt Jack's arms wrap around him protectively.
"That's what I'm trying to do."
Sensing that he could not wait for Ianto to muster the strength to build up control himself, Jack aborted his last doubts and dove into a slow and sensual kiss.
tbc…