STORIES

EIGHTEEN

From seemingly out of nowhere Ianto Jones pulled out a small, odd-looking weapon. Jack immediately recognized it as a phase disruptor. So did Gray. Ianto discharged it twice in astonishingly rapid succession and with pinpoint accuracy. The first time he fired it just past the head of Jack's brother. The second time he hit the hand that was holding Jack's revolver. The Webley flew into the air and fell to the floor. Ignoring the pain, Gray angrily yanked on The Doctor's arm and the Time Lord yelped indignantly in response.

Ianto bellowed at the top of his lungs, "The first shot was to make a point. The second shot was to make you hurt. The third shot you're never going to know about. Let go of The Doctor now and show me your hands. Show me your hands!"

Gray's eyes swiveled around the room and settled on the disruptor. "You take me out you'll take out the Time Lord too," he scowled.

The slightest of smiles graced Ianto's lips. "I believe the odds are reasonably good the Time Lord will regenerate. Will you?"

Gray rolled his eyes, released The Doctor, and raised his hands up into the air, palms facing outward.

Jack grabbed The Doctor, pushed him aside and then seized Gray angrily. "What in the fuck are you doing, you asshole?" the Captain snarled.

"Stick and stones," Gray giggled.

Ianto, keeping both his eyes and his disruptor fixed firmly on Gray, walked over, picked up Jack's revolver, checked the safey and tucked it securely into his waistband. "He's a bad one, Jack."

"I know." Jack flashed Ianto a quick look of appreciation mixed with relief. "You okay, Doctor?" the Captain asked although his eyes were once again focused solely on Gray.

"Yep." The tone and terseness communicated information far beyond the simple monosyllabic answer. Jack could tell that The Doctor was angry and upset. This divination in itself angered and upset Jack, who felt he'd sufficiently warned the Time Lord that the situation could easily devolve. The former Time Agent decided to take his irritation out on Gray.

Captain Jack Harkness was highly skilled in the fine art of causing physical pain. He was a consummate expert at bringing about both the permanent and the temporary varieties. He didn't need a weapon to inflict either type. He didn't even need two good arms.

Although his broken hand was still aching, he yanked down hard on his brother's arm – the same limb that Ianto had injured a minute earlier with the disruptor – and in a single, efficient, almost elegant motion cleanly dislocated the shoulder joint. The pop could be heard from fifty feet away. Oh yes, Jack was well aware of how to cause a human being significant if not intense levels of distress with only the littlest bit of effort on his part.

The pain he caused Gray was indeed excruciating and Gray let that fact be known by screaming. The Scream fully expressed the sentiment that he was experiencing an amount of pain that was incredible, in the literal sense; The Scream sounded surprised, as in I had no idea anything could be as painful as what just happened to me.

Jack punched the injured shoulder with his good fist, "Be a man and stop with the whining," he growled. It appeared that Gray's knees were beginning to buckle so Jack yanked up on the same abused arm. Gray gasped. "And stand up straight; don't you know that good posture is important?" The Captain grabbed his brother's dislocated joint and gave the shoulder one last firm squeeze before letting go of it. "Playtime is over, little brother. Now tell me what I want to know."

Gray shook himself almost like a dog would shake off water and with his good hand held his injured arm to his chest.

"While you were being distracted by that darling little boyfriend of yours – what does he call himself? Oh, right… Captain John Hart." Gray narrowed his eyes and looked at Ianto. "Ah, minion, he's a fickle one, isn't he, this former lover of yours. Do you still have high hopes you'll get him back some day? Does hope spring eternal in your young man's breast? In your young man's balls? Wake up, delectable minion. I'm here to tell you that your hopes and dreams lie elsewhere!" Gray giggled but then a look of pain shot across his face. He repositioned his injured arm and stared hatefully at Jack. "Well, at any rate, big brother, while your beloved city of Cardiff was falling in ruins, and Captain John Hart was leading you around like a bull with a ring through its nose, I was busy. I was so very busy…

"And don't you know, haven't you yet realized that when I had my lovely little lackey John Hart bury you alive that I was actually doing you a big favor? I was big brother! Seriously! A huge favor! I was protecting you from the temporal repercussions caused by the most absolute and perfect destruction of our home planet. You and I are all that's left! Boeshane is gone from space and time – your Doctor can tell you that, Jack. Didn't he explain it to you already? That our home never existed? Didn't he tell you? Well, he should've! Aw… poor big brother, out of the loop and out in the cold once again. Never let in on the important secrets. Always the last to know. And no longer The Face of Boe since your precious peninsula has been amputated from reality!"

"But the Void…" this was The Doctor, desperately trying to understand. Back on Boeshane he'd not sensed anything remotely like that…

Gray turned his malevolent attention toward the Time Lord. "You're so pedantic, so unimaginative, so stilted. Aren't you worried you're too distracted, dearest Doctor? Losing your touch? Missing the obvious? Well you should be very worried. You've become slow and stupid. You're as dead as the rest of your race. What about the Void? It's nothing special. I move in and out and through the Void from the Darkness all the time, Doctor. And I'm here to tell you, you've got a lot of people out there who don't very much like you, nor your friends or your beloved companions. No… they don't like you at all, dearest Doctor. And if you, killer of your own kind, are the Lord of Time then I… I am the Prince of the Dark Force. I am the King of the Darkness! But the Void… the Void has nothing to do with what happened to Boeshane, big brother." Gray glared at Jack, his gimlet eyes burning intensely with the fires of madness. "Oh no… now that… THAT is something else entirely. You'll have to look elsewhere… And THAT is something I'll take to my grave, if you have the guts, big brother, if you have the balls to put me in it, which I very much doubt."

Gray's eyes sought out and found the Welshman's, and held them mesmerizingly. "He's so impotent, that former lover of yours," he breathed seductively. "Forget about him, delicious minion. It's time to move on. Forget about the Time Lord, too. If Jack's impotent, then the Time Lord is barren and sterile. You deserve so much more! You're young, virile, sensual, vibrant. You're so alive! Come with me, comely minion. I can show you things beyond your wildest dreams. Lead you to worlds that are unimaginable. Share with you sensations that will rock your universe and transform you forever. Give me your weapon, Ianto Jones, give me your hand, and come with me. Learn what it's like to really live and really love. Let me change your world…"

While Gray was speaking to Ianto, staring intently into the Welshman's eyes, Jack leaned over and unobtrusively picked up something from off the floor. The Captain's eyes met Ianto's ever-so-briefly and a certain look of understanding passed between them. Ianto smiled at Gray and Gray's eyes flashed as he returned the smile hungrily, triumphantly. But in reality there was nothing to celebrate. Jack, something hard and hot entering his eyes, struck like a viper, covering Gray's mouth and nose with a cloth that already had been doused with just enough chloroform.

Gray struggled for a second or two and then his limbs went loose as he crumpled incapacitated to the floor.

"I like my world just the way it is," Ianto remarked dryly.