Chapter Twelve:
Nausea washed over Steve as Jack pressed his watch, the world spinning around them as time fled around them. Close his eyes and waiting for it to pass, pressure on the soles of his feet told him they'd been materializing. When cold air brushed against his skin, he opened his eyes to find himself standing in the Torchwood hub, all lights off and silence filling the room.
"Ianto?" Jack called out slowly. "Owen? Tosh?" He glanced around, stepping away from from Steve to glance around the dark room, swinging his head in confusion. "Ianto! Rose!"
"Tony!" Steve joined him, but his voice was more commanding, as if he was used to his team disappearing or running off.
"Jack?"
All heads swung up to see Ianto appearing from the top of the balcony. He looked as well kept and clean as ever, but there was something wild and panicked in his eyes that sent a shiver through Steve's spine. He practically flew down the stairs, basically tackling Jack into a hug before immediately pulling back and slapping him hard across the face.
"Where the Hell have you been?" He shouted.
Steve jumped back a bit, pulling Bruce to his feet. Bruce was in bad condition, that was for sure, and the only thing on Steve's mind was getting him better. But something was wrong here. Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.
"In the 1600's, where do you think?" Jack gasped back, rubbing the side of his face, slightly offended.
"Jack, it's been two months since you were supposed to be back." Ianto stammered, and Steve's heart froze.
Two months? Two whole months they'd been gone? How had that happened? Jack had set the watch to barely hours after they left, how had they possibly been gone two months?
An image of the terrifying black monster crossed through his mind and made him shiver with fear, and coldness settling over his bones that he couldn't shake. Where on earth had they time gone. Or rather, what had stolen it?
"Two months?" Jack echoed, glancing across to Steve, raising an eye. Steve shook his head. "Where's everybody else?"
"Gone, Jack." Ianto stammered, before catching sight of Bruce and gasping. "But… Let's take care of him first, shall we?"
Jack had frozen to the spot with the words spoken, but he knew that Ianto was right-they needed to deal with Bruce before anything else.
"I'll go grab some clothes." Jack said, nodding and disappearing down one of the hallways.
That left Steve and Ianto to half drag, half carry Bruce over to a couch of sorts lining the sides of the room, dropping him on to it heavily. And drop is a very literal term. Bruce's eyes flickered, and cast themselves about the room rapidly, trying to discern his surroundings.
"Where…?" He managed out eventually.
"Torchwood, you're safe." Ianto said, but Bruce just looked at him.
"They're allies." Steve assured him eventually, and Bruce just nodded. "You were touched by one of the Angels. It sent you back in time- so we got you."
"Yeah I know what happened." Bruce snapped, sitting up and stretching.
"How long were you there before we found you?" Steve asked, the unasked question of what the Hell happened hanging in the air.
"Four weeks?" Bruce stammered. "Uh, I got there, and a week passed uneventfully, hiding in barns and trying to breath even and keep myself under control. When a family found me, I fled into the woods. That's when that… thing… It… It was… testing me, or something. I don't know what it wanted and it never spoke… It was just… Painful."
"Three weeks of torture…" Steve breathed, sitting back a bit. Bruce opened his mouth to say something, but footsteps behind them interrupted the conversation, and Steve turned to see Jack handing him a pile of clothes, which Steve in turn passed to Bruce. He thankfully pulled the clothes on, modesty barely a consideration after the multiple nights of waking up in unusual places.
"Alright." Jack said suddenly. "He's talking, not dead, we're all here, now you said everyone else was gone?"
Ianto nodded, looking up at Jack from his crouched position with Steve, beside Bruce. "Uh, Rose… Rose and them went off to find her little splinter, or something…" Ianto began, standing up and rubbing the back of his neck. "Everyone else went with her. They had mirrors, they had all of the information, they were ready… But it… It didn't… I had stayed behind to wait for you, and… they're gone. I don't know. No phones, no radio, no response and no contact."
"What are we going to do?" Steve said, and before Jack could say anything Bruce interrupted.
"The Angels were listening to Stag." Bruce said quietly.
"Is that what we're calling the unholy death monster from Hell?"
"They would sometimes be there. I couldn't never see what they were doing, naturally, but they shifted and moved depending on where the Stag was. They seemed… scared of it.
"Weeping Angels aren't scared of anything." Jack scoffed.
"They were scared of it." Bruce insisted. "And it was interested in me. I don't know what it wanted, but it's definitely not confined to the one time period. If it's there, it's here, and it's certainly taken the rest."
"For what, what does it need with… soldiers and scientists?" Steve stammered.
"I think the question you should be asking is what would somebody want with the Avengers? Specifically, a man who can turn into a giant green version of a man." Ianto pointed out. Bruce jerked his head up to Steve, who looked to Jack, who was studying Bruce.
"Is it… Is it studying us?" Steve asked.
"It's learning…" Jack whispered.
"What about…" Ianto said, then cut himself off. "What about your… Your Doctor? The one you say always helps you out in situations like this."
"The Doctor isn't… He's not here." Jack dismissed.
"Can't you call him?" Ianto snapped. "This isn't… This isn't Weevils in the sewers or meat monsters in a warehouse, this is the entirety of the Avengers and your friends being taken and kidnapped and tortured by a time travelling… whatever!" Ianto shouted, his voice rising in pitch as he went on.
"Calm down." Jack ordered. "We'll get them back."
"I will not calm down!"
"Who's the Doctor?" Bruce interrupted suddenly, skin pale, if not tinted green.
"A friend."
"A magical time travelling friend apparently for God's sake he defeated the entirety of a Dalek fleet and pulled Earth through space back into its rotation, I think he can help!" Ianto said, standing up suddenly to face Jack.
"He did what?"
"It's not… We can't just call him whenever!" Jack snapped.
"Martha has his phone number." Ianto countered.
"We can't call the Doctor!" Jack shouted, and Steve took a step back, glancing at Bruce who looked carefully between the two feuding men.
"Why not!" Ianto snapped, his face turning red from panic and fear and concern and the stress build up of a two month panic waiting for Jack to return. Waiting for anyone to return.
"Because the Doctor is dead!"