Author's Notes: Well, this is a bit more adequate as I'm writing it during daytime.

Also, chapter twenty! Just ten more days to go.

Sorry for the cliffhanger. It's just that the next chapter is 'Injured' and I think I can fit a two-parter here just fine, so I'll try to upload as fast as I can.

Day Twenty: In Battle, Side by Side

"Ianto, please."

"No, Jack."

"At least hear me out!" Jack knew that he was shouting and remembered what his father had told him one day – the words so distant now that there were lost in time – "Never shout if you want to be heard. It shows that you're powerless." And that was how he felt right now – powerless. More than that, he felt helpless.

Ianto turned on his heels to look at him and his eyes were filled with the grim determination that often scared the Captain so much. "I heard you out. You and the Doctor, and River and also a few strangers that decided to help. But no one seems to understand – you can't. I created this. It responds to no one but me. No one can help me."

Jack stared at the machine in the middle of the room. It was round, approximately the size of a beach ball, made from some metal Jack hadn't seen before and that looked somewhere between gold and copper, and it was completely covered in buttons of all sizes and colours and a small screen.

"I started working on it the first days after I was promoted and I've been thinking about it since the war started," Ianto said quietly as he lowered himself next to it. "The Senior Commander gave me the freedom to do anything I wanted to; anything that could stop the Daleks, but he told me to not let anybody else but me have power over it – God knows what would happen if the Daleks themselves had taken it."

"And what is it, exactly?" Jack asked. As soon as they'd stumbled upon the sphere – they were on this planet at all because the TARDIS had caught a distress signal – Ianto had visibly paled and told everyone – civilians, the police (or what passed for it under the control of the Daleks) and even his friends – to get out as soon as they could because it could explode.

"When activated, it releases a gas that can get past the Dalekanium and to the Daleks themselves. It doesn't affect anyone but them, so it's basically a chemical weapon, only temporal. It's supposed to work on those on this planet and then, when they do a Temporal Shift – and they will, they'll release it into the Vortex. They travel in the matter of seconds, but it doesn't matter, because it'll spread out there."

"Killing every Dalek in time and space," Jack realised with a small smile. "Ianto, that's brilliant!"

"I try," Ianto said immodestly, but then started poking the sphere again. "But that brings us to square one."

"You said it would explode," Jack said, the smile dying on his lips. "That's why you tried to chase everyone away."

Ianto nodded. "Precisely. This planet has a higher density of oxygen than Gallifrey and when it releases the gas, the reaction will most likely be an explosion."

"Well, press it and run, then."

Ianto shook his head. "The moment I activate it, it'll spread the gas into the air. It was made that way so Daleks won't have the time to escape before it reaches them."

"So this was basically a suicide mission waiting to happen, is that it?" Jack's voice was harsher than he'd wanted it to be, but he couldn't hold back.

"Jack, we were desperate. What is one life if millions – billions – are to be saved?"

"Everything," Jack snarled and Ianto's eyes widened in shock. He clenched his eyes shut, then opened them again and brought Jack in for a kiss.

"I'm sorry," he said softly against the Captain's lips. "There isn't another way. These people here? They've been slaves of the Daleks for centuries. I have to do this. For them and for myself, because I never, ever want to see one single Dalek again. So when you get to the first floor, run. Find the Doctor and River. Tell the Doctor what I've done. I'd go now and tell him myself, but everything outside is full of Daleks and plus, I don't want him to hate me – and he will, because that's genocide. I fully realise that."

"And I don't blame you," Jack assured. "If I could, I'd make the same choice any day. But not like this. Please."

"Jack, we already went through this. I can't–"

"I saw you regenerating!"

"You what?"

"I told you the other day. That Rift alien thing – I saw you regenerating."

"And you just might," Ianto smiled. "I don't know how the explosion will affect me, so I'm open for possibilities. But now please, do me a favour and get out. Make sure that everyone is out of the zone of impact. For me."

"What if you don't make it?" Jack could barely hear his own voice. "There's still a chance that you won't survive."

"There's always that chance, Jack," Ianto said softly with another hasty kiss. "I've come to accept it."

"I haven't."

"I'll be fine. I already told you. I'm always fine in the end." When Jack didn't say anything, Ianto continued. "And plus, we've got to help these people. No one but me can do it; it's based on my DNA." There was a moment of silence. "When you get to the Doctor, signal me with his screwdriver so I know you're far away enough. I'll get it on my phone. And by the way, if I blow myself up–"

"Don't say things like that!"

"– Please take out my phone. It's won't be destroyed, I've shielded it against such things. So take it. I've been working on that thing for months."

Ianto. Ever the pedant. Even in what were perhaps the last minutes of life.

"Okay," Jack said in resignation. "Okay. I've seen the future; nothing else could happen, right?" he let out a small, hysterical laugh and kept going, fearful to answer his own question. "I believe in you and I know you wouldn't listen anyway, so– go on. Destroy them to the last one."

"That's what I was planning, Captain."

Jack knew that there was nothing more he could do. Ianto wasn't one to stay back when he could do something to change things, so there was no use of wasting any more time with it. He squeezed Ianto's hand and then let it go, turning his back on him just as Ianto called out, "See you in a bit."

"Don't keep me waiting," Jack murmured as he left the room.

The building was deserted – had been since Ianto had announced that there was a great possibility of the whole place exploding – and his footsteps echoed as he made his way out of the empty corridors and halls of what had once been the Parliament of this country, long before the planet had been taken over by the Daleks.

"Where is he?" the Doctor asked as soon as he approached them. He was pacing around restlessly, impatiently waiting for a response, but Jack could see in River's eyes that she already knew the answer.

"Melodramatic git," she snapped to no one in particular. "I hate him sometimes."

"You and me both," Jack said darkly as he joined them. He wanted to look unruffled by the whole situation and tried to make the impression that he was absolutely sure of the positive outcome, but the Doctor didn't bother with pretences.

"You let him do it, didn't you?" he asked quietly. "You allowed this?"

"I can't allow or forbid him anything, Doctor." Even to his own ears, his voice sounded defeated. "He isn't a child. I know that this is the way you look at him, but he is not a child." The Doctor looked ready to retort, but Jack beat him to it. "Send him a message; he needs to know we're all out."

Jack watched, holding his breath, as the sonic let out several short signals and as, seconds later, the ground under their feet started trembling. They all looked down and River voiced what the three of them understood at the same time. "The impact is bigger than he expected. The whole place is going to blow up."

"Run!"

Jack followed them and they ran away – a bit too late, he was sure, just as he knew that the buildings around them would most likely follow suit – as the Parliament behind was swallowed by a white hot ball of fire and the world around them exploded.