Chapter 5

Victorious

Thanks to everyone who's reading this, you people make my day. Warning, the first little segment of this chapter will be reiterating the middle of Utopia, but it'll be short.

Disclaimer: owning nothing.

They searched tirelessly for the next 24 hours, even though the Doctor insisted over and over again that with the TARDIS, Ianto could be anywhere in Time and Space. But Jack demanded they continue. He dragged them all across Wales, with Tosh on call on the computer running face and voice recognition scans on street cameras.

Jack, the Doctor and Martha had struck out again in Swansea and were on the M4 just past Bridgend when Jack broached the subject.

"Doctor, I didn't get a chance to ask before. Battle of Canary Wharf…" he kept his eyes fixed on the road. "I saw Rose's name, on the list of the dead. I just…"

"Huh?" the Doctor looked over at him, seeming to have barely heard. "Oh, no, she's fine! Parallel world, safe and sound."

Jack laughed, relieved, and for the first time that day he smiled. "Thank God! So…she's safe?"

"Perfectly safe," said the Doctor. "And Mickey, and her mother, and her alternate reality father."

"That's great!"

In the back, Martha dropped her gaze to her interlocked fingers. Good old Rose.

"And what about me?" Jack asked, shooting a glance sideways at the Doctor. "Why can't I, you know, die?"

The Doctor was silent for a long moment. "Rose came back to Satellite Five after I sent her home."

"How?"

"She opened the TARDIS. Stared into the very heart of the Time Vortex. Wreaked a little havoc, on both the Daleks and you. She brought you back. Permanently. You're a fact, now. You always have to exist."

"So I'll be like this forever?" asked Jack.

"Yup."

"Terrific." Jack's cell phone rang. "Tell me you found him!"

The Doctor and Martha heard Tosh's faint, tinny voice say, "I've found something. Get back here quick as you can! Gwen and Owen are on their way."

oOo

The newscast which Tosh showed them was not comforting in the slightest. It was another interview with Prime Minister Saxon about the Toclafane, but the part to which Tosh brought their attention was a shot of Saxon walking through 10 Downing Street's sitting room, which the Doctor knew was just adjacent to the main conference room where he and Rose had faced down the Slitheen. Tosh paused the frame and pointed to a man standing behind Saxon. He was half turned away from the camera, but he was instantly recognizable.

"What's Ianto doing in London?" said Owen.

"What's he doing at Ten Downing Street?" said Gwen.

"We need to get inside," said the Doctor.
"Kids," said Jack grimly. "We're going on a field trip."

oOo

The plan was deceptively simple and, as the Doctor put it, extremely dangerous. Time Lord Ianto would recognize any one of them, and they didn't know where he'd be at any given time. First, they needed to get to London, which proved surprisingly easy, and they had little trouble stationing themselves in the abandoned warehouse attached to the skeleton of Torchwood One, at which point, they began planning.

Essentially, their disadvantage reduced them to sneaking in one at a time with their respective fake ID's, and the Doctor and Gwen forcing their way in back, while Martha stayed at the Hub monitoring the security feeds. This had given birth to quite an impressive argument, which gave Jack new respect for the Doctor's not-Rose.

"And Martha," the Doctor had said, as they all stood around the long makeshift table they'd set up in their ramshackle London base, the schematics of 10 Downing Street spread out before them, "I'll need you to stay hear, watching the monitor and keeping us posted on what's going on.

"WHAT!" Martha had shrieked. "You can't just send me away! I don't care if it's dangerous or it's-"

"It's not that it's dangerous," said the Doctor, whose voice by contrast was softer than ever. And it was this, more than anything, which got Martha's attention. He raised his eyes to meet hers. "I need you on the outside. There is every chance one or all of us will be caught-" a quiet rustle passed over the room "-and I have to know I can depend on you to help us."

The argument had gone ferociously back and forth for several more minutes, during which a number of references including Shakespeare, 1913, New-times-fifteen-New-York, and pig people were shouted, and Martha had come very near, Jack was sure, to lifting up the giant table and hurling it at the Doctor. Then the Doctor said, "Martha, the world may in fact end if you don't." That had shut her up. Sort of.

Martha had glared at him for the rest of the briefing, but had finally agreed. Jack had the lurking suspicion that she would do most anything for the Doctor if he asked.

Afterwards, the Doctor pulled Martha aside. "Martha, I need you to listen to me very carefully." He placed a hand on each of her shoulders. "You can't come after us. I meant what I said. It'll probably be you rescuing us in the end."

"But if you're trapped," Martha swallowed. The idea was at once laughable and entirely terrifying. "How will I know what to do?"

The Doctor smiled gently. "You'll know. Now," his voice became more clipped, business-like, "in the meantime, don't, under any circumstances, try to contact your family, unless you want Ianto to find them too. And don't draw attention to yourself in public. In fact, stay inside as much as possible. You never know who might be watching. And whatever you do, no matter what happens, do not use cell phones."

Martha frowned. "Why not?"

The Doctor sighed. "Haven't you seen 'The Bourne Identity'?"

The Doctor maintained that all they needed was to get Ianto on his own so he could talk to the Time Lord without fear of interruption. He was probably just scared and disoriented after being a human for so long. The only objections, voiced emphatically by the entire Torchwood team, were to the Doctor's forbidding the use of guns.

"You won't need them," was all he would reply.

oOo

Gwen and the Doctor entered 10 Downing Street through a rusty maintenance door tucked behind an overflowing dumpster, and emerged into a long hallway with thick maroon carpeting and ugly floral wallpaper. There was not a soul in sight. Tentatively, they began walking down toward the junction at the end, sweeping left and right with their eyes, ready to run or fight should anyone appear.

"Doctor?" Gwen asked after a minute or so of silence. "What exactly are the Toclafane?"

"Nothing," said the Doctor without looking at her. "The Toclafane don't exist."

"What do you mean?"

"They're a fairy tale, like the Bogeyman. Just a story they used to tell us back on- back where I'm from. They were the reckoning. If children were disobedient, or if they interfered in affairs that weren't their own - which was the greatest offense a Time Lord could commit - the Toclafane would come and punish them. But…" he shook his head and gave Gwen a brief smile, for she was staring at him with genuine alarm, "they're just a story."

"So, what are these things Saxon's calling the Toclafane?"

The Doctor shook his head again. "I don't know. But I'm almost certain that whoever Ianto is, he brought them through."

"How, though?" said Gwen. There was a creak from somewhere above them, and both froze, listening hard. After a few seconds of silence, they continued walking.

"I've been thinking about that. The only thing I've been able to think of is that he had a… a timer of some sort. Something connected to the rift, that would open it at the right time. Which means we have a huge problem."

"Why?"

"Because it means the Time Lord wasn't hiding. He was planning this long before he turned himself human. But why?" the Doctor asked, sounding as though he was speaking more to himself than to Gwen. "Why become human at all? And why wait for so long?" Gwen waited, but the Doctor said nothing more.

"Doctor?" she whispered finally as they reached the end of the hallway and turned left into the next. "Does it strike you as odd that this place is completely deserted?"

"Yeah," said the Doctor, holding his sonic screwdriver aloft. "Yeah, it does."

The Doctor's earpiece crackled, and he heard Martha's voice say, "Doctor-ou-off-een…can't-ou."

"Martha?" the Doctor tapped his earpiece, waved his sonic screwdriver over it, but the signal was lost. The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Gwen. "Careful."

They continued down the hall to the junction at the end. The next hall was identical, and just as deserted. There was complete and utter silence.

"This doesn't make any sense," said the Doctor, frowning. "Last time I was here, this place was packed. I can't even hear anyone. I don't-" he broke off, staring at the wall. He took a few steps forward until he was only inches away, and held the sonic screwdriver right up to it. The ugly floral wallpaper warped and rippled away from it.

The Doctor stepped back and raked a hand through his hair. "Oh, he is clever, he is a clever Time Lord. Clever, clever."

"What is it?"

"He's got us in a cyberlock. Oh, that's good." He was back to examining the wall. "I haven't seen one this convincing in decades! Centuries!"

"But what's a cyberlock?"

"It's a jail cell. Well, it's like a jail cell. Well, it is a jail cell, but you don't think it's a jail cell. It projects an image into your mind so you think you're still moving around, but really you've been stationary for hours or even days. I was in one once for a month and a half. Thought I was hiking up Mount Everest. Ah, Tenzing Norgay, he was funny."

"So, go back to the part where we're in a jail cell!" said Gwen.

"Ah, yes, well we've been trapped in the same place for about ten minutes. Time seems to move slower inside. I'd say about one fifth the normal rate. What feels like a minute to us is five minutes to the real world. Not particularly powerful, but very convincing. Bravo."

As the words left his mouth, the hallway flickered and was replaced with a dark, concrete room, in which stood four people: Tosh, Owen and Jack, all chained to the wall with medieval, metal shackles, and Ianto standing in the center of the room, leering at them.

"Oh, very good, Doctor." He consulted a stop watch. "That only took you…four minutes thirty-two seconds. You're as brilliant as I remember." At these words, everyone turned to stare at the Doctor, who gestured around at them with his head, for his and Gwen's arms, too, were shackled.

"This cell, how'd you build it without the people upstairs catching you?"

"That's the beauty of a time machine," said Ianto, "wouldn't you say? Just go back to before the place was built, invest a little manual labor, a little jiggery pokery perception filter on the door, and you're in business."

"But why?"

"Oh, Doctor," Ianto sighed, "you always asked so many questions. I think it's time you gave some answers. Ask him," he said to the others. "Ask him who I am. Go on." He left the cell and shut the door behind him with a loud thump!

"Doctor?" said Jack.

oOo

Ianto climbed the stairs up to the Prime Minister's office. When he entered the room, Saxon ordered all its occupants outside. As the last one closed the door, Saxon swallowed. "Everything is arranged, sir."

Ianto nodded slowly. "That's good, Harry. I'm pleased."
"What happens now?"

"Now? Now we wait. This operation will take time, Harry. But I'm a Time Lord. I've got lots of Time."

oOo

"There was one Time Lord who I thought might've…" the Doctor cleared his throat. "I looked for him. I didn't think it was possible."

oOo

Saxon fled the room with a sigh of relief, leaving Ianto alone at the great conference table. He smiled a little to himself, for a moment allowing his pride to well up and fill his body with glowing warmth. The Doctor was weak, far weaker than all the legends had made him out to be. He had beaten him easily. He was the Time Lord victorious, and soon this stunted little planet would be free of the degenerate vermin that swarmed its surface, and the Earth would be his.

Theirs, his mind corrected him. Of course, theirs. Ianto stood from his chair, purposeful. He knew what he needed to do.

Thanks for reading! Doctor, Doctor, I feel like a pair of curtains! Oh, pull yourself together.