Part Three
Ianto picked up his mobile and called Owen.
"Didn't we just hang up?" he said.
"Believe me, there are a dozen other people I'd rather call," Ianto replied. "Where are you?"
"In the car park. Tosh started hacking into the system. How's Jack?"
"Still cold. It's Gwen I'm calling about."
"All right. What's going on?"
Ianto told Owen about Gwen's condition, the battle going on within her and the toll it was clearly taking on her body. The doctor swore.
"Is she stable right now?"
"She's unconsciousness," Ianto said. "This is worse than the bloody Exorcist, Owen. Any moment she could start vomiting green fluid. What do I do?"
"I need to know her vitals. Grab a scanner from my desk and run it over her."
Ianto put the phone on speaker, moved as fast as he could to Owen's desk, and rustled through the mess, swearing under his breath. When he finally found what he needed, he hurried back. Gwen's breathing didn't sound good, and she was twitching, as if having a nightmare. He read off her vital signs to Owen, who was silent.
"Okay, what do we think is going on here? Because that affects how we treat her."
"From what I can tell, it's the same being as Beth, only its consciousness. It somehow transferred to Gwen before Beth died."
"How?"
"How the hell should I know? I was—" He stopped, then dropped to his knees and looked at Gwen's left arm. She was completely unresponsive as he pushed up her sleeve. "Yes, there's something here—looks like a puncture wound on her upper left arm. She's been rubbing it a lot."
"So maybe Beth stuck her with something when she grabbed Gwen yesterday?"
"Like her soul?" Ianto asked skeptically. He brushed the hair from Gwen's face; she was burning up. "Owen, aliens don't usually go around injecting people with their spirit."
"It wouldn't be the weirdest thing we've seen," Owen said. "All right, so she's got this alien consciousness inside her, and she's fighting it. It's taxing her body too much, that's why you're getting those readings."
"So…maybe now's the time for the sedative?" Ianto suggested. "Put them both to sleep so her body isn't torn in two?"
"That's assuming the sedative works on the alien," Owen pointed out.
"It's Gwen's body. She's still human, so it should knock her out."
"Not if the alien consciousness is strong enough to overcome the physical effects. You already said Gwen was stronger."
"Look, she's getting worse," Ianto told him as Gwen moaned in pain. "She's not going to last long. Isn't it at least worth trying?"
"If we put Gwen's consciousness to sleep and not the alien, she can't fight it," the doctor pointed out.
"She's in pain!" Ianto exclaimed. "You can't see how hard it is for her, how much it hurts."
The doctor was silent on the other end of the phone. "Fine, give her the sedative, but keep a close eye on her. Both eyes."
Ianto set the phone down, picked up the needle with the sedative he'd prepared earlier, and stuck Gwen in the right arm. Her eyes flew open and she thrashed and screamed. On the phone, Ianto could hear Owen shouting at him, asking if everything was all right. Gwen went limp again, and Ianto took a shaky breath.
"I think so, but it didn't like getting jabbed."
"Get some more, in case it wakes up. And get a few other things as well." Ianto grabbed the phone and went down to the medical bay, gathering everything Owen directed him to find: additional sedative, pain killers, epinephrine, bandages, and more.
"Do you have a weapon?"
Ianto nodded, then remembered he was on the phone, that Tosh and Owen were locked out and couldn't see him nodding. He sat down for a moment on the steps, a rush of dizziness and fatigue overtaking him.
"Ianto, you okay?" Owen asked.
"I'm fine, Owen," he replied wearily. "But I really want to end this and get back to work."
"Right," Owen laughed. "Making coffee with a bum arm."
"It's my left," Ianto told him. "So don't worry, you won't go into withdrawal." He lapsed into silence, his body aching, his mind just about done for the day, and it wasn't even ten in the morning.
"Ianto, you need to stay awake. How's Jack? Why don't you go check on him."
"Owen, I'm okay, I—"
"You're injured and alone and you can't lose focus now. You're doing brilliant, so keep it up a little longer."
"Always so surprised," Ianto grumbled, but he stood up, his brief rest over, and started back up the stairs.
"I'm not. You're good at this, mate, you just don't think you are. None of us think we are. But we saved the world yesterday and we'll do it again today. Got it?"
"Right, and then I'm going to—" He stopped in his tracks, dropping all the supplies as his brain went into denial.
Gwen was gone.
Before he could even begin to think of how she had got out of the cuffs, he was knocked over from the side by a shrieking blur which crashed to the ground on top of him. His shoulder screamed in agony as she sat on top of him, lashing out and shouting, her face distorted with anger and pain.
"Gwen!" he shouted. "Fight it! Get off and fight it! This isn't you!"
The being hit him hard, then sat back and grinned. For some reason, that made him mad. It was one thing to be attacked by a possessed coworker, quite another to be laughed at by an alien using her body to pummel him. He'd already been shot, he wasn't going to be mocked.
Instead of resisting, he went limp, which took her by surprise—enough that she started to fall forward, and he literally propelled her five feet backward and off him. He scrambled away, groping for one of the guns he'd taken earlier. It had been lost in the scuffle, but he reached into his coat for the other and pulled it out, aiming Jack's Webley at Gwen. Gwen. How could he even be thinking about it?
"I don't want to shoot you," he said. "So why don't you surrender now and maybe we won't scatter your consciousness across the cosmos."
"You can't kill me without killing her," the thing inside Gwen sing-songed at him.
"I don't believe you," Ianto shouted. "You got in, so we can kick you out."
"But if you shoot, you'll kill her body," it said. "That's why you won't."
Ianto stood slowly, keeping the gun as steady as he could and failing as his hand shook. "Why are you still here? The rest of your cell is dead."
She hissed at him. "They're dead because of you! We were so close. I'm going to finish what they started, beginning with this city." She turned and walked away.
Toward the Rift Manipulator.
He should have shot her, should have stopped her. But it was Gwen. He couldn't kill her, not without giving her a fighting chance to get rid of the thing that was using her. He had to help her, not execute her. Swearing under his breath, he followed, Jack's weapon still trained on her back.
"Stop!" he shouted. "Gwen, fight it."
Gwen-not-Gwen stopped, shuddered, and kept walking. Ianto glanced wildly around; it was like he'd traveled back in time six months and was shouting at Owen to get away from the manipulator. Why did his life insist on repeating its worst moments? He needed something besides a pistol, because he didn't want to shoot another coworker.
Hurrying over to his desk, he yanked it open and grabbed his stun gun. Concealing it in his coat as best as he could, he moved quietly back toward where Gwen was staring at the Rift Manipulator, Jack's Webley still trained on her back. Her head was cocked, as if she was listening to a voice only she could hear.
"Gwen doesn't know how to work it," Ianto called. "So you may as well leave her alone now. She can't help you."
"She is a vessel," Gwen-not-Gwen replied. "She doesn't know how to work your machine, but I do. I've been gathering data on you since the moment I stepped into your little cave."
"If you open the Rift, you'll destroy the city!" Ianto moved closer, trying to remain as calm and unobtrusive as possible.
"I know," she snapped. "You stopped us yesterday, but you will not stop us today."
"What's the point?" Ianto asked, still moving closer. "I thought you studied us, then moved in to invade. If you destroy everything, what's left for you?"
"The rest of the world," it replied. "A catastrophic loss will demonstrate our power and weaken your leaders. We will move in and take what's left."
"It will unite them, strengthen them," Ianto told her. "Destroying Cardiff will only make the rest of the world fight back harder, or you don't know us at all."
Gwen hissed at him and turned back to the manipulator. Ianto moved closer. She held up a hand and told him to stand back. He shook his head and stepped forward.
"You're defenseless," Ianto told her. "You have no weapon and you can't leave. The others will be here soon, and Jack will be out of cryofreeze. He's not as forgiving as the rest of us, so I suggest you surrender now." He hoped the alien didn't have complete access to Gwen's memories, because Jack was probably the most forgiving of them all.
"You won't kill her," she said. "You can't."
Another step. His hand was steadier but his heart raced, knowing he was facing a powerful alien presence with otherworldly strength. He told himself it wasn't Gwen, Gwen didn't want to hurt him, but the being inside her could and would kill him. He had to move quick. No hesitation.
"I can, but I don't need to. You can't open the rift. There's a piece missing from the manipulator."
She stopped, cocked her head in that odd way, and growled in the alien language. Ianto wondered if she was swearing. "Where is it?" she demanded.
"Locked up," Ianto said. He raised Jack's Webley once more and mustered as much conviction as he could; it didn't feel like much. "So move away. You've lost."
"You know everything about this place. Get it for me."
"No."
The ugly grin appeared. "Get it or I will leave her body an empty shell. Right now her consciousness is still useful—and still fighting. Get me the key or I will snuff her out like an insect."
He believed it. For a moment, he faltered, wondering if his plan was a terrible idea, if he was going to fail and watch her level the city. No, he could do this. He had lied and deceived and tricked before, he could do it again. He let his shoulders sag the slightest.
"Leave her alone," he said, and didn't need to fake the plea in his voice. "It's in the secure archive. But it needs two fingerprints to access."
A pause. "She is not aware of this. You're lying."
"Tosh reset all the security protocols last night," Ianto said wearily. "Including the secure archives. Gwen wasn't here at the time, it's part of our briefing today."
Gwen-not-Gwen narrowed her eyes. He hoped she believed him, because he'd already mentioned the security change once. And Tosh had changed most of the security protocols, but not the secure archives. Only he and Jack could open those.
"Set down your weapon," she said. "And we will get the key together. If you don't cooperate, she will die."
Ianto nodded as he set down the pistol and raised his hands. Grimacing as if his shoulder pained him (which it did), he slipped his hand into his coat to support his arm. Nodding toward Jack's office, she motioned him forward first. He moved slowly, calculating the best moment to strike. When they stepped into Jack's office, he whirled around, the stun gun raised and ready. His first shot was to her shoulder; she yelled in pain, but did not fall. He managed a second one to her abdomen, but instead of falling, she threw herself at him, sending them crashing backward against Jack's desk. They both sank to the floor.
"You will not win," she ground out, scrabbling for the gun. Somehow, he managed to hold onto it, gripping it so tight his fingers hurt. She hit his head hard against the floor, once, then twice. His vision blurred and he knew he was going to lose consciousness; with an effort he didn't know he had in him, he raised his right arm and pressed the gun against her temple, pulling the trigger and holding it there. She shouted as she convulsed, and Ianto could swear he saw a bright light and a rush of energy fill the room. With a dramatic roll of her eyes and one final shudder, she collapsed on top of him, unconscious.
He pushed her off, breathing hard. He needed to confine her—bind her again, get her down to the cells where she wouldn't escape a third time. But he could barely move. She'd hit him hard, and his shoulder was on fire, and what the hell had happened at the end? Even trying to sit up brought a crushing wave of pain and nausea, and he fell back to the floor, cursing at his weakness.
He tried so hard to cling to consciousness, but he couldn't. As the world faded into darkness, he only hoped Tosh and Owen found them before Gwen woke up and destroyed the world.
Author's Note:
Final chapter sometime this weekend. Thank you to those of you who have commented or left kudos! They are the only way we authors know if anyone is out there reading the story and actually enjoying it. Otherwise our default setting is to assume that no one is reading it because the story sucks. And that's no different for those of us who have been around here for a while or those who are just joining, for those of us who have written many stories and those who have only written a few. Comments are so appreciated and I always enjoy answering questions. Thank you and enjoy the end!