Of Pawns and Kings

AN: A sequel created by request. I hope you enjoy it!

Part Two:

The King (Once Upon A Time)

By SSQ

Once upon a time, Ianto was a king. White and shining, the other player always took the first move. Of course, he didn't think that Ianto was a king when he first met him; he thought that he was just a pawn. A pawn from the crumbling remains of Torchwood One's chessboard, unharmed and so brightly white. He was intrigued, amazed by such a pawn that somehow managed to do so much, be so reliable.

He was the King, and he took the (so impossibly beautiful, (How did a pawn get that beautiful?) pawn into his ranks, a black pawn the other became. But he was blinded, so happy about finally being King, finally having his own games of chess, that he couldn't see the chessboard quite right. He couldn't see that the pawn was a king, plotting. He didn't see until a few weeks after he found Gwen, his (police liaison-) pawn. (Or was she a rook? He didn't know, it was so impossible to tell.)

That was when they found the Queen in the basement, and he could see the chessboard clearly. A knight, (Doctor Owen Harper, thankyouverymuch,) A bishop, (Toshiko Sato, she's our tech genius.) and a pawn (Police liaison, Gwen Cooper.) was all it took for the Queen (Lisa-Cyberman.) to topple and the game to fall into checkmate. (Ianto was still alive, because King's never die, remember?)

Jack didn't know what to think about the once-king, now-pawn. (Teaboy, as Owen liked to say.) He was the perfect (butler-cold, unfeeling Ianto-) pawn, slowly moving forward and doing as needed. (Knight step in the wrong place? Ianto, get that blowfish, won't you?) Nothing different, just the same. Reliable. Dependant. Good. As if he were gaining back Jack's trust. (Which of course he did-"Think about it, lots of things you can do with a stopwatch, sir." "I can think of a few…")

Then his doctor came back, and he ran, abandoning his team and all the chess games in the world because this was his doctor, and he had waited for so very long. But he was thrown into another chess game; one that was an uphill battle from the start.

No pieces were familiar in this game, just his doctor. He was just a knight to the Doctor's King and Martha Jones's Queen. (Well, sort of Queen; the Doctor never got over the loss of his wonderful Rose. Martha was just a pawn, somehow a queen at the end.) The three of them against the (Chess) Master, (The Master,)in the longest, most hopeless game he'd ever played.

He missed his team dreadfully, The Bishop, The Knight, and pawns he always used to protect and fight alongside. (Tosh, Owen, Ianto, Gwen…the games of chess that were actually winnable.)

When they (somehow) managed to win the game, topple all the Master's players and declare checkmate, he ran back to them and promised himself that he'd never let go. (He saw them die, murdered infront of him on the Valiant.)

He ran back to his quaint little chessboard in Cardiff, and watched as two of his pieces fell. A bishop and a knight. (Toshiko, Owen-His friends; something akin to children. (Idiotic children who never could see each other's feelings,) His brother killed them, (Well, Owen a second time.) and left him to be but a king with just a pawn and a queen, so easily checkmated.

But before all that, he saw his pawn turn Queen. (Ianto, so cool and collected when he returned…Don't you see I'm not going to leave? I love you…don't die…)

His pawn became Queen just to be snatched away once more. A new player, titled the 456 took him, toppled his piece just as soon as he became a queen. And Jack, of course, was left to pick up the beautiful shards and fragments of him.

Once piece left. A pawn. (Gwen.) He couldn't let her die, not her too…The last piece of the original chess team. (Not even the chessboard remained, the 456 made that explode, too.) So he left. He left earth and all the chess games there, he ran into the stars and began new games of chess, (always trying to forget the ones where he lost…to forget the times with a wonderful pawn who became Queen.) no matter if her were a knight, a bishop, a king, a queen, a rook, or a pawn.

After all, some of the best people were pawns.

(He never really forgot, throughout his entire life.)

One final chess game, and he was a pawn. (It took him all his life to realize he was a pawn in the end, always was one.) A pawn who finally, finally reached the end of the chessboard. A king (His doctor,) a pawn, (Martha,) and a bishop (Sweet old nurse Hame,) were there as he finally toppled in the most wonderful chess game of all against Death itself.

And when he woke up, there was no more chess. Just a wonderful once-King, once-Queen, once-pawn, man named Ianto Jones who even throughout all the centuries, he never forgot.

Fin.