Torchwood: Dragon Age Episode One "End of Days"
Chapter 5: The Centre Cannot Hold
CONTENT:
Rating: Mature
Flavor: Action/Adventure/Drama
Language: bad
Violence: yes
Nudity: no
Sex: no
Other: cliffhanger
Number of Gratuitous Jack Deaths: 0/0
Author's Notes:
Another super-sized chapter. I was thinking I should just cut out the next round of thrilling adventures, but what the heck. Consider this the Director's Cut. :X If you're tired of all that, you can skip the part after they leave the Hub, then pick up at the bunch of italicized news footage when they return.
The cliffhanger is only cliffhangery if you haven't seen the show. If you have, you know what happens, anyway.
Extremely grateful thanks to the Cheeky Monkeys of Dragon Age who know some Middle English, and the writers of Scribophile who found out how to work a Webley Mark VI after my own research fell short. Also thanks to Google, Wikipedia, dictionary. com and spellcheck. net, who help me not to look like a total idiot. (But note: Polonian may not resemble Polish exactly...)
Props to the Iron Maiden, Testament, and Savatage fans! \m/
The Centre Cannot Hold
===#===
The afternoon traffic was light, especially for a weekend. Gwen wondered if Rhys, too, was hunkering down at home, staying out of the path of chaos. She'd told him to, earlier, and he'd promised he would. But if he had to go out to the market for any lasagna ingredients... Stubborn Welshmen.
Then her thoughts turned back to Owen. The friction between him and Jack this morning had only escalated, and now look where they were. Gwen turned over the information about the 'Torchwood Retirement Program.' Surely, Owen had been exaggerating. Jack wouldn't retcon him. It's not like Owen was some agent provocateur, some security risk. He wouldn't risk people's lives by going public - they'd probably lock him away for spouting on about aliens in Cardiff. How could that be a threat to Torchwood? Unless those people from UNIT took an interest.
Jack was always butting heads with the international extraterrestrial threat response organization. She'd thought it had been interdepartmental politics and male territorialism, but now... She glanced at the man next to her. UNIT probably would consider him an extraterrestrial - and a threat. But Owen wouldn't go to them, peddling secrets... turning Jack over to them, out of spite. Gwen chewed her lip. What was she thinking? That sounded exactly like Owen. Damn.
She could possibly still reconcile them. Owen only had the welfare of the people in mind, after all. She glanced at Jack again. His mouth was pinched in a thin line, the corners of his eyes tight. Now was not a good time. Perhaps after this crisis had passed.
Jack didn't bother easing over to the curb, he just braked rather hard in the middle of the empty street, right in front of the old dance hall. Gwen was glad she'd had one hand braced on the dashboard. She was a bit nervous that he'd parked so close, but held her tongue while he checked his wrist strap.
A frown knit his brows. "This isn't possible." He opened the door and got out before she could ask for clarification. Gwen followed him, hanging back from the doors.
He punched at the buttons his his contraption and turned left and right. "There's nothing here." He slapped the strap with the heel of his hand.
"What does that mean?"
"It means something's wrong. We know Owen opened the Rift right here yesterday, but..." He swept the device in an arc again. "Nothing!" He flipped the cover closed and looked at her. "I'm going to look around inside. Wait here."
"Jack, you promised you wouldn't go in." Of course, he wasn't listening. He started to force the doors open. "What if you get stuck in 1942 again?"
He turned and said flippantly, "Then in seventy years, I'll come walking down this street and drive you back to the Hub."
Gwen threw her hands in the air. Damn that man! "Well at least give us your keys! God knows, you can't keep track of them that long."
Jack stopped halfway in the door to toss her the keyring. Then he disappeared into the darkened hall.
She growled in frustration. She should go after him, as backup, as a second pair of eyes and ears. To help him, to protect him from getting hurt or killed.
But the hard fact was, she was too afraid. If she came walking down this street after seventy years... she wouldn't be walking, she'd be tottering. What would Rhys do, with her in her dotage, near the end of her life? What would she do without him for seventy years? She spat a curse.
Then she keyed her comm. "At least keep an open mic. What's going on?"
After a moment, his voice came back. "Nothing. Still the same... There's not even any music."
"What about in the office? Is there any clue as to where Bilis went, or what identity he might be using now?"
"Good idea."
Gwen shook her head. What was he doing in there, sightseeing? Your fancy futuristic alien gadgetry might fail you, but good old-fashioned investigation always worked.
===#===
Jack didn't find anything, but Gwen did. It wasn't anything to do with their quarry, but everything to do with their job. She'd noticed a gaggle of children creeping out from a nearby alley. Not your typical school kids, these were dressed in furs and leather; their faces were round, swarthy yellow-brown, their dark eyes hooded. They might be Eskimos or Mongols. Or even children from prehistoric tribes struggling through the Ice Age.
"Jack, get out here," she muttered into the comm. Then she moved around the front of the SUV towards them, slowly, smiling, her hands out unthreateningly. "Here, now; don't be afraid," she said in her best stray animal cajoling voice. She crouched down to appear smaller and less threatening. "Come here, luvs. You can't understand me, can you? It's all right." They milled about uncertainly, and she kept up the soothing monologue.
The smaller children looked to one of the bigger boys. Or perhaps it was a girl, it was difficult to tell under the thick furs. The leader eyed Gwen mistrustfully.
All of their eyes widened as Jack moved up behind her. "Easy now," she said. "Don't spook them."
"Gwen, move back."
She stood slowly, still smiling at the children. "Do you have some of Myfanwy's chocolate stash in the SUV?" She knew chasing the kids would be a trial. Best to lure them with sweets.
Jack didn't answer, but keyed his comm. "Tosh? Send Child Services down here to the alley across from the club." Gwen turned to him in shock. "There are about eight or nine stray children lost down here."
"Wh-?" was all Gwen got out before he grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her off balance. She stumbled against him and was momentarily lost under the folds of his coat as he turned to shield her with his body. Something hit the SUV with a crack like a rifle shot. Was someone shooting at them?
Jack shoved her towards the passenger side of the vehicle. Staying low, she took cover around the side. He ducked down beside her. "Keys!"
She was already reaching for her gun. She changed trajectory and grabbed the keys and shoved them into his hand.
"No guns," he told her, beeping the locks and levering the door open.
That was easy for him to say! Gwen risked a peek over the edge of the SUV. One of the children had a sling. He launched a rock from it and Gwen ducked. It whistled through the air and hit the corner of the windshield with another CRACK, leaving a chip in the thick glass. "Bloody hell!"
"Get in!" Jack called, but she was already diving into the passenger seat, and he was already pulling away from the curb.
What the hell? she started to ask again, but he was on the comm to Tosh. "Tell Child Services they're armed with slingshots. They should be careful." He clicked off.
Gwen twisted around as they left the children behind. "Jack! Child Services?"
"They're young," he said, his eyes not leaving the road. "They can adapt."
"But you saw them; they don't belong in this age and time. They've come through the Rift. They're Torchwood's responsibility."
"What do you want me to do, Gwen?" he snapped. "Shoot them full of Weevil-tranq? Lock them in a cell down in the Vault?" When he spoke again, his voice was tight, level. "Child Services will teach them English, how to use a fork and spoon... They'll be able to integrate into society."
Her blood ran cold. Children lost in time, treated like the mentally retarded, tamed and trained to live in the modern world; they would lead lives completely alien to what they had been destined for. Yet it was better than what Torchwood could do.
Gwen looked at Jack, studied the closed, stern expression, the hard-set eyes. Like a good soldier, she had faith in her commander, but Owen's words echoed in her mind - like a plaster on a gaping wound. How long could this policy of 'containment' keep up?
Impatient with even the light traffic, Jack hit the blue flashers and gunned through a red light. Gwen held on.
===#===
Toshiko chewed distractedly on the arm of her glasses as she watched the Rift calculations run. Ianto came down the stairs after showing the elves the upstairs loo. "Another disaster averted," he said. Then he looked up worriedly. "Or about to start."
"Ianto, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, Tosh."
She turned her chair to face him. "Do you ever post things for Jack?"
"Yes, all the time. Why?"
"He didn't want me to have any contact with my mother, but he does let me send her cards twice a year. Does he give them to you? Do you know what address they go to?"
He pursed his lips, thinking. "No, I don't recall anything like that." He shook his head, and she sighed, feeling the icy fingers of dread spreading further along her spine. "I'm sorry," he said; "I didn't even know you had any living relatives."
"Maybe I don't."
"Why would Jack lie about something like that?" He frowned. "Or keep up such a charade?"
"I don't know," Tosh said, but in the back of her mind, she could think of a few. It would keep her in line, for one thing. But didn't Jack understand how loyal she was? How grateful to be allowed to work for Torchwood? Or was all that part of the charade as well? She shook herself. She would find out. Right now, there was no use jumping to conclusions.
Ianto looked up as the two elven visitors came down the spiral staircase. They were looking much refreshed. Tosh wondered about the state of the loo, and was ashamed to admit she was glad that it was part of Ianto's job description to clean up in there, not hers.
"What are you doing?" Bannon asked, leaning over her desk to watch the colours flashing on the screen.
"These are the calculations for the Rift manipulator, and the projected results for the Rift that will open," Tosh said.
"So the mage was right. You do know how to open it." He shared a look with Zevran.
"Mage?" Ianto asked.
Zevran said, "The one you didn't see in the dungeon." Ianto frowned.
"So open this Rift," said Bannon, "and we can go home."
"It's not that simple," Tosh explained. "Especially with the new security protocols Jack put in."
"He did seem rather adamant about not opening the Rift," said Ianto, a frown line still creasing his brow.
"There's also some doubt as to whether we should open it. Look here." Toshiko pointed to a set of numbers flipping rapidly on the screen. "This variable is shrinking rapidly. If it continues on, we'll end up with a division by zero."
The elves looked blank, but Ianto knew what that would mean. "Is that an error in the formula we have?"
"No, it's the projected length of the Rift. It could theoretically become infinite."
"Is that... as bad as it sounds?"
Tosh turned away from the screen. "It means the Rift will cross the entire universe, yes."
The door alarms blared, and Toshiko quickly minimized the program. Ianto gave the elves a hushed warning to say nothing. Those two shrugged at each other. Ianto called out, "Any luck?"
"Only bad," Gwen griped.
Jack said, "We didn't find anything. The anomaly, it completely vanished. No residual energy, nothing."
"What does that mean?" Ianto asked him.
"It means Bilis is up to something." Jack threw his coat over a handrail.
Hesitantly, Toshiko said, "What if Owen... What if opening the Rift there, then closing it again - what if that healed the breach?"
Jack shook his head. "It's not possible."
Gwen looked at him. "You know how this all works?"
"I know that making two tears doesn't leave you with a whole cloth." Jack came over to the workstations. "Have you found any trace of Bilis' new identity?" he asked Tosh.
"No."
"Well, what have you- what's that?"
"It's..."
It was no use; Jack reached over and maximized the Rift calculations. His eyes scanned it and grew hard. "It looks a hell of a lot like the Rift manipulator equations. I told you: we are not touching the Rift."
She flinched. "Well, I just thought... if we eliminate it as a possibility..."
"I already eliminated it!" he snapped. "Find a lead on Bilis Manger." He clicked the program to close it. "We're running out of time."
"Jack, ease up," Gwen said carefully.
The Rift alert klaxon sounded, a death knell to the brief respite. Jack gave Gwen a sour look. "I'd like to, but I can't."
Tosh turned away from his baleful glare, drawing up the tracking programs. She started counting as Jack barked orders.
"Ianto, take Bannon again. Tosh, take Zevran. Gwen, with me."
Gwen said, "Tosh will need her hands free to run the scanners by remote. I'll take Zevran."
"No," he said quickly. "You and Tosh take the SUV. I'll take him."
The elf in question sighed dramatically. "Always they are fighting over me, no?"
"No," his friend was quick to shoot him down. "Don't get eaten by any darkspawn," he called over his shoulder as he followed Ianto out.
"You either, lethallin."
"Keys," Jack said to Gwen. He'd have to take her car. She bit down on a groan and handed them over. "Tosh, what are we looking at?"
"Thirteen."
"All right. Get visual on each one quick as you can. Pass off the minor stuff to local authorities or UNIT." He swept his coat on and called to his elf, "Let's go."
Tosh set up her remote access and went with Gwen.
===#===
Jack ground his teeth as he had to waste more time adjusting the seat in Gwen's car. She needed a bigger car. Zevran, for his part, sat still, curiously looking over the new vehicle, but touching nothing.
Jack slammed the car into gear and nearly flooded the engine. This thing wasn't as responsive as the SUV. He took a deliberately long, slow breath, then tried again. He had to keep his cool and deal with this crisis. Something had to be causing the Rift to behave this way, but what? If the Doctor were here, he'd figure it out in a heartbeat. Where was he? Jack was willing to hold the line until he arrived, by himself if necessary.
No, he couldn't think like that. He'd spent a century waiting for the Doctor, and when the time had come, he couldn't catch up with the Time Lord. The Doctor had left again, without even realizing Jack was here, trying to reunite with him.
Left behind again.
Jack gripped the wheel, then eased off. Tosh relayed the location of the nearest Rift activity, and the Torchwood team split up to race to each scene.
Jack stuck with Torchwood through the long, slow years because he knew the Doctor would return to the site of the Rift, of Torchwood 3's headquarters. He knew, because the Doctor had shown him where it was and how he refueled his TARDIS from the unlimited energy.
Jack couldn't meet the Doctor then, because he couldn't risk meeting himself in his own past. Knowing where the Doctor was and being unable to go to him had been more painful than trying to reach him and failing.
Once again, he had to loosen his hands on the steering wheel. He was not so desperate that he hoped the world would come to the brink of annihilation just so he could see the man who had become his hero. And he was jaded enough to know better than to trust anyone but himself.
Bilis had to be the key. He was no ordinary human. If only Toshiko could have gotten a lead on him in this timeline. He shouldn't have yelled at her, he realized with chagrin. But why had she been running that calculation? Without consulting him first? That wasn't like her. Owen being a stubborn, rebellious prick was nothing out of the ordinary. Hell, even Ianto lying to him wasn't unheard of, was it? But Tosh had faith in him, ever since he'd brought her out of that hellhole of a UNIT prison.
Jack was gently shaken from his musings when the elf cleared his throat. "You have something to say?" he asked Zevran.
"Si. Just to clarify for all concerned, I was not going to stab you in the back."
"No? Why were you sneaking up behind me with a knife? You see a loose thread or something?"
"Heh heh." The blond's quiet chuckle was warm and breathy. If Jack weren't so distracted with the Rift Storms, he would find that quite alluring. "No, I was only prepared for the eventuality of you attacking us. That did not seem to be your plan, however."
"You didn't seem to care for my plan of putting you in the Vault."
"Hrm, yes, we could have done without that bit."
"Well," Jack said optimistically, "it all turned out for-"
Something up ahead exploded.
===#===
Gwen had the tranq pistol, Tosh her PDA, as they entered the primary school. The front doors were broken; spider-webbed safety glass lay on the pavement, and the metal frames looked chewed. The women turned down an empty hall, skirting a folding table. "There!" Gwen spied it before Tosh looked up from her palmtop screen. A brightly-coloured buglike creature, about the size of her hand, scuttled away. They pursued.
"Easy," Tosh warned; "It stopped again." They slowly peered around another corner and saw the little alien. It had crab claws, insectile legs, pink frilly antennae, and a segmented abdomen. It turned around and raised the tip of that abdomen towards them.
They both ducked back as a bubblegum-pink wad spattered on the wall near their heads. "Did that thing just projectile poop at us!?" Gwen exclaimed.
Toshiko eyed the... poop spatter. "At least it's a nice colour." She frowned as the paint began to peel around the wad. A tiny wisp of smoke rose. "But it seems to be highly acidic."
Gwen risked a peek around the corner. The little gremlin seemed to be considering another volley. "I'm not sure I can hit it with the tranq; it's so small." Would the needle even penetrate the chitin?
"I suggest a retreat to the SUV is in order," said Tosh.
"I concur. Go!"
They fled back down the hall, but drew up short as an array of gremlin bugs gathered in an arc and prepared to present posteriors. Gwen's phone rang. "Not now, Rhys!" She shoved the tranq pistol in the back of her belt and fumbled for the phone's cutoff.
"No, wait, don't turn it- Look out!"
The two women dove through a doorway. Tosh pulled her phone out. "Let it ring," she said as she punched the keypad.
The gremlins were trundling towards them, until Gwen's phone rang. Then they just froze in place. "What?"
Tosh said, "Something about that sound - the frequency or something - is making them stop."
The gremlins' frilly antennae quivered in time with the rings of Gwen's mobile. Then the call switched over to voice mail. Tosh hung up and redialed. In the pause, the gremlins scuttled forward into a new firing position. They froze once more as the phone trilled.
"Come on!" Tosh danced over the firing line, and Gwen followed on her heels.
"They'll be after us again."
"Grab that fire extinguisher!"
They swung around a corner, and the next hall had gremlins crawling up the walls. "Oh bloody hell!"
Tosh rang Gwen, and Gwen sprayed them with the fire extinguisher until they were frozen - literally. The phone stopped, and several of the fringe gremlins scattered to escape. The two Torchwood agents pursued with phone and fire extinguisher, until they ended up outside in the playground.
"They're going to thaw," Gwen said, spraying the last batch. "What are we doing to do?"
"You're not going to believe this," Tosh said.
"What?" Then Gwen looked where she was pointing. "You have got to be kidding me!"
"I'll ring you again, go make sure they stay frozen. Then we'll cart them out here."
Gwen groaned and ran back inside while Tosh punched the redial on her phone and went to steal an ice cream truck.
===#===
Ianto waited at a red light, craning his neck to look for any signs of... well, anything. "Keep a sharp lookout," he told his partner. "It could be anything that came through the Rift. Even something small."
"I know," Bannon replied. "Like those little boxes? We'll never find it if it's that small."
"We should only be so lucky as to have it be something as innocuous as that."
"Ianto!"
He turned at the panicked tone in the elf's voice, just in time to see a lamp post at the next corner topple over, nearly hitting two cars. One screeched to a halt. The other swerved, laid on the horn, and then buckled in on the side and flew up over the sidewalk to smash into a glass storefront. Only, there was nothing to have impacted with it. Or worse...
"Shoot it!" Ianto yelled.
"Shoot what?"
"Whatever it-"
Something roared. Then the ground started shaking in time to the heavy thumping... of something accelerating towards them. Ianto tried to estimate how big it was, but had a hard time concentrating as the elf shoved at his arm in a panic.
"Drive... drive! Move! Move! Go go go!"
Ianto tromped on the accelerator and turned onto the street in front of the... whatever it was. A parked car behind them got smashed aside.
"Faster!" The elf almost brained him pulling the bow off his shoulder.
"Not that! Use the crossbow-without-a-bow!"
Bannon scrabbled around for the tranq gun.
===#===
The square was a battlefield. Gunfire clattered from both sides. Greasy black smoke drifted across the roadway from an overturned UNIT vehicle. Jack strode past troops in black body armor and red berets. They didn't stand a chance in this fight. He spied the leader, a man with captain's stripes, and moved to him, Zevran following in his wake.
"Captain, order your men to hold their fire," Jack told the UNIT commander.
The man, with grey at his temples and steel in his eyes, took one look at him and snorted in contempt. "They've killed fourteen of my men."
"If you don't want more dead, then stop shooting."
"This is not the jurisdiction of Torchwood!"
"It is now." Jack grabbed a bullhorn from the captain's lieutenant and aimed it across the square. "This is Captain Jack Harkness of the United American Federation. I am invoking directive 766. Cease fire!"
Within moments, the spates of gunfire died out. Jack handed the bullhorn back to the UNIT captain. "I'm going to talk to them. Just sit tight." He turned to Zevran. "You stay here." No sense in both of them getting shot if things went wrong.
Without waiting for any replies, Jack strode into the center of the battlefield. It was lucky he majored in the 20th - 25th centuries at the Time Agency, he mused. Especially when he got stuck here for the duration.
"Where is your commanding officer?" he demanded loudly, when he'd reached the midpoint between the two forces. He clasped his hands behind his back to give himself an air of authority and confidence, as well as to appear unthreatening. Though sweeping back the wings of his coat did reveal his sidearm.
There was movement from behind a kiosk and a phalanx of parked vehicles, then one of the soldiers stepped out. He was armed, but his weapon was slung. His spine perfectly straight, his shoulders squared, he rapidly approached and snapped a precise salute.
Jack returned it, then resumed his parade rest stance, pushing his shoulders back a bit more. He glanced at the tattoos marking the soldier's face; his name was Todd and he ranked as sergeant. "Where is your commanding officer?"
"We were cut off, sir."
Jack cursed inwardly. The officers would be easier to deal with. The frontline soldiers, the grunts, were products of a special eugenics program. They were bred and trained to obey orders, not to think for themselves. "Why were you fighting these men?"
"We were fired upon, sir. We took cover and returned fire."
"Sergeant, I'm taking command of your platoon. Secure your weapons and fall in."
If Todd had an opinion of that, or any sort of suspicion at all, it didn't show on his face. "I will need the response to challenge code Bravo Victor 0079, sir." His voice was as polite as military neutrality could be, but if Jack failed this test, things could get very ugly.
And, unfortunately, this was one thing Jack couldn't fake or bluff his way through. "I do not have the codes, Sergeant. But for the safety of your men, I need you to follow my orders."
"I am not authorized to do that, sir." Now his voice was hard, like steel being drawn.
"Listen, Sergeant Todd, does this look like the place you were deployed? Do you recognize it?" He spread his hands, gesturing around them.
The soldier scanned left and right. "No, sir."
"You and your men have been drawn through a Rift in space and time," Jack said firmly, looking into the soldier's cold eyes, trying to reach some sort of reason within him. He got nothing in return. "Did you notice any unusual electrical or atmospheric phenomenon when you were cut off from your command?"
"Yes, sir."
"That was the Rift. It's moved you through time and space to this location. This is Great Britain, about 250 years before your time. There is no United American Federation, and you are not at war."
Todd's eyes narrowed a fraction.
"Yes, I lied about my commission, but it was the fastest way to get you to listen. I'm the leader of Torchwood. I can help you, but I need your cooperation."
Todd's gaze went past him, assessing the UNIT troops deployed against his platoon.
"You can try to fight your way out of this," Jack tried desperately, "but where are you going to go? How are you going to complete your objective, when it doesn't even exist here?" He hoped this grunt could reason and think past his training and indoctrination, think outside the box he'd been trapped in his entire life. It was a slim hope. "Think of the survival of your men."
He couldn't read this man; he was more closed off than even Ianto. Was anything even going on inside his mind? He had orders... they probably included wiping out any resistance. Jack braced for the worst. Todd stared him in the eye, and neither man blinked.
Then the soldier nodded. He surrendered his weapon to the surprised Captain Harkness, then turned and signaled his men. The other soldiers filed out from cover. They lined up with precision and saluted Jack.
Grateful, Jack returned the gesture. Then he realized he had no way to transport these men back to the Hub. Now the UNIT captain and some of his men were coming to the parley, and Jack realized he was sunk. UNIT would love to get their hands on these advanced soldiers, to study them, learn how they were created... to use them. They could plant the seeds of the eugenics program that had become such a dark blot on the history of humanity in the centuries to come.
The UNIT captain gave Jack a look of barely suppressed smugness. "I think we can handle it from here, 'captain.'"
You think you can, Jack thought uncharitably, but you know nothing about these soldiers. He glanced at Todd, who had remained silent and unnaturally still, waiting for orders, the same as the rest of his men. But Todd had been watching the officers, and no matter what he'd been bred or trained to think, he was still human. From behind his eyes, he watched, and waited to know his fate.
Todd looked at Jack expectantly, and now Jack could see a glimmer of thought. If Jack gave him the nod, the Sergeant would go with the UNIT troops until they reached their headquarters. UNIT would try to incarcerate the soldiers, and they'd resist. The soldiers would tear through the UNIT facility like wolves in a sheepfold.
Jack couldn't, in good conscience, cause the death of so many. He had to let go. "Sergeant Todd, you and your men are now under the command of these UNIT officers."
"Yes, sir." He snapped a salute.
Jack returned it, then turned on his heels and left. It was out of his hands, now. Besides, he had more to deal with. He could see the ragged outline of a Sycorax ship parked on top of a shopping mall several blocks away.
He found Zevran. The elf had his bow out, an arrow on the string. "What are you doing with that?"
"Watching your back."
Jack wondered if he should be touched - or worried. He beckoned Zevran to follow him back to Gwen's car. "With ideas of sticking an arrow in me?"
"Certainly not. There is more than one way to watch a man's back."
Was the elf flirting with him? Jack glanced aside. That did look quite like a leer. Now was not a good time. "Are you any good with those pig-stickers of yours?" He got to the car and unlocked the door.
"I am an expert swordsman, and I can assure you, I have never used them to stick a pig," Zevran huffed, offended.
Jack looked over the roof of the car at him. "What do you stick your pigs with, then?"
The grin sprang back onto the elf's face. "Well, it depends on what he likes, no?"
God they were flirting! Damn. Maybe later. "Just get in the car."
"As you like."
===#===
"An invisible rhino," Ianto thought out loud as he drove well above the speed limit. "An invisible dinosaur." Something crunched behind them, the sound of twisting metal and shattering glass. Ianto didn't look, he had to keep his eyes ahead. He wouldn't see anything useful anyway. "An invisible dragon," he hypothesized, worrying about the crowded intersection up ahead.
Bannon was sitting braced in the passenger side window, facing backwards and shooting at their pursuer. No seatbelt for him this time; the threat of catastrophic trampling outweighed the danger of Ianto's driving.
The elf ducked down into the car. "No," he said as he counterbalanced against Ianto's swerving, "a dragon would have taken flight by now."
"Good to know we can cross that off. Did you hit it?"
"I dunno."
Ianto laid on the horn and wished he had blue flashers at least. He braked and swerved down a side street. A far too narrow one. But at least there was no traffic. "Is it following?"
"I dunno." Bannon opened the glovebox and tried to catch the box of tranquilizer darts that fell out.
Something boomed and roared in complaint at the mouth of the alley, followed by the distinct sound of bricks tumbling to the ground. "Oh yeah, it is," the elf amended, shoving darts into the chamber.
Ianto slowed and turned again. If it were intent upon pursuing them, which it seemed to be, he could keep it contained by going around the block. But every time he slowed for a turn... Something tagged the rear quarter of the car, causing the back end to skid sideways. Ianto regained control while the whatever-it-was broadsided another parked car. "At least it doesn't corner well."
Bannon hoisted himself back into position in the window. Ianto heard the creature's footfalls pounding the asphalt and the bark of the tranq gun.
"I don't think you're hitting it," Ianto called.
"I am hitting it, just your stupid crossbow is useless!"
Ianto pulled a left onto a wide avenue. The thing took out a corner postbox and light pole.
"Faster!"
"I'm tr- oh shit!" Red light! Ianto didn't dare slow down. He hammered on the horn and looked for a break in the criss-crossing traffic ahead. Unlike in the movies, a gap wasn't miraculously appearing in the nick of time. He slewed the car towards the point of least impact and managed to fishtail through the intersection amid the blaring of horns and screeching of tires. One note in the din was deeper and heavier, and cut off abruptly with a dull WHUMP and the crunch of a truck's front grille.
Clear of the scattered vehicles, Ianto braked to a halt and looked back. A semi with a crumpled front end stood geysering steam. In front of it was a large clear space that slowly pooled with dark purple liquid.
Ianto got out for a better look. Bannon, who had been clinging to the car door for dear life, climbed fully out the window and came over beside him.
"Where's the gun? Er, crossbow."
The elf pointed towards the middle of the wreckage in the intersection. Well, Ianto couldn't have expected him to keep hold of it during maneuvers. They were only lucky Bannon himself hadn't gone flying.
"Hey!" someone yelled. "What the hell?" The dazed motorists were milling around in confusion with bewildered stares at the lump of nothing in front of the truck. Some of them started pointing in Ianto's direction.
"Back in the car," he said. "Situation clear." He could call UNIT to handle the cleanup, once they were speeding safely away.
===#===
Jing-jing-jingle, jingle jingle jing-jing. Jing-jing-jingle, jingle jingle jing-jing.
Gwen gritted her teeth as she guided the ice cream truck slowly down the street. "I swear to God, Tosh, if I have to listen to this jangling for much longer, I'm going to go mental!"
Tosh was driving behind her. "I'm sorry, Gwen; I didn't find any heavy protection in the SUV."
Gwen shifted her focus to the PDA balanced precariously on the steering wheel. "All right, just up here, on the left. I've got signals." When the milling specks on the screen froze, Gwen hit the brake and jumped out.
She and Tosh swept up the gremlins in their butterfly nets, then deposited them in the freezer of the ice cream truck. Well, Gwen thought as they slammed the doors shut and she turned and leaned on them, you can't say Torchwood agents are slouches at improvising!
===#===
The Sycorax had about twenty or thirty people corralled in the food court. The tall humanoids with skeletal armor had a tight perimeter around them, but Jack and Zevran hadn't encountered any sentries guarding the mall doors. They seemed more concerned with keeping their prisoners in than keeping anyone else out.
"Okay, you see that big armored guy with the ceremonial sword?"
"Si."
"Think you can take him in a fair fight?"
The elf snorted. "You did say 'ceremonial' sword, did you not?"
Jack glanced at the sword hilts sticking up over Zevran's shoulders. They were utilitarian and worn with use. "His armor is a lot thicker than yours, though."
"I am, no doubt, faster."
Jack recalled the elves' fight against the cyberman. This seemed a good bet, but he was betting with people's lives, here.
Zevran pulled out his left sword, and a vial from his belt. "Do they allow poison in this duel?" he asked, pouring some shadowy liquid along the edge of the blade.
"Definitely not."
"Then we shall not mention it, hm?" Zevran grinned and spun the sword until the liquid spread over the metal and dried in a faint oily sheen.
"Right. Follow my lead." Jack suppressed a grin and walked out towards the Sycorax guards, his hands out, showing they were empty. "Take me to your leader," he demanded in Galactic Standard. "I have a challenge for him."
===#===
The way Zevran understood this, he was now the Champion of Torchwood, and this duel would decide who would be sovereign over this world. He grinned up at the tall creature before him.
The Sycorax leader was decked in layers of carved bone, with a bestial skull for a helmet. He raised his thick-bladed sword in two hands, quite the decorative thing, judging by the gems and carvings and filigree on it. "Shaard phah, nogolo szhritu!" the thing spit at him, snarling and showing teeth filed to points.
Zevran chuckled lightly and leaned back on one leg, his stance entirely relaxed. The audience surrounding them, bone warriors and humans alike, seemed in awe of his lack of fear. He drew his swords slowly. "You are not so ugly as a darkspawn," he told his opponent, giving his left sword a limbering twirl. "Nor so powerful as an abomination. Nor as large as an Archdemon." Zevran smirked. "You think you can intimidate me?" He grinned more infuriatingly.
The creature's eyes flared with red light. He roared, raised the heavy blade, and charged Zevran. So big, so heavy, so clumsy, so slow. The elf almost had time to yawn before he stepped aside. This is too easy, Zevran thought. Perhaps I should toy with him, make things a little more dramatic.
So when the Sycorax turned and came at him again, Zevran danced aside, and struck out with his offhand blade, just nicking lightly between the bony plates of armor. He pirouetted, and flashed his smile at the captive humans. "What is this?" he decried dramatically. "Do you plan to overcome me with your foul stench?" He laughed, and the warrior lunged.
Left, right, left, the elf darted, the huge blade slamming into the tiles of the floor beside him. "Perhaps it is your plan to muss my hair with the wind of your passage." Zevran stabbed lightly, prodding and poking at the bone armor and the flesh beneath it.
The Sycorax was puffing like an ox, slowing down even more. This was pathetic. Zevran played to his audience; he could hear the humans laughing at the beast, he could see the glitter of adoration in the women's eyes, the glare of envy on the men's faces.
And the scowl on the captain's. "Will you hurry it up! We don't have all day."
"As you wish!" With another flair, he sprang at his foe, surprising the Sycorax with a flurry of swift blows. Then he left an opening. The warrior struck. Zevran backpedaled, off balance, to the gasping of the crowd.
With a roared curse, the Sycorax swordsman thrust, overextending his whole body. Zevran twisted aside, then stuck out a foot to trip the creature. It went down with a mighty thud, and Zevran leapt upon his back, stabbed down, driving his swords into the broad back of the beast. It screamed, and thrashed, then fell limp, bleeding out on the tiles.
Zevran stood atop his foe, a bloodthirsty grin on his face, waving at his adoring audience.
Jack was busy ordering the other bone warriors around in that foreign language. They released their captives, some of whom wanted to show their appreciation to their elven champion.
The captain broke Zevran out of a lip-lock with the sixth or seventh young beauty to be thanking him graciously. And enthusiastically. "Will you come on!"
"What? Did I not win this duel for you?" Zevran grabbed his swords out of the body. "By the way, since I did win, does that not make me King of this World?"
"No," Jack said sourly. "You're my champion. That makes me King of the World."
"Bah, you shems are all alike. I did all the work!" Zevran followed the captain back to the coach.
"Work? What work? I wanted you to take that guy out, not play with him!"
"It was too easy."
"Zevran," Jack said, turning and facing him. "You're not getting paid by the hour. The next time I need you to help me save the world, skip the dramatics and just do it!" He opened the coach door for the elf, then went around to the other side to drive it.
Zevran blinked. "I get paid?"
"Just get in the car!"
The elf climbed in. "What do I get paid? When do I get paid?"
The human just waved a hand to shush him, then touched his ear. "Yes, I got it, Tosh. Costco. We'll be right there."
"Who are you talking to?"
"I'm in magical communication with my team," the human said. He worked the mysterious controls that brought the coach to life. "Now shut up-"
"But this getting paid thing-"
"On payday, okay? If you live that long." Jack shot Zevran a glare as he was opening his mouth again. "Which you won't, if you don't shut up right now."
Zevran huffed and sat back in his seat. Shems.
The Costco parking lot was besieged by a platoon of horsemen milling about on one side. Tall, red-painted lances and decorative wings rose above the throng. Four patrol cars lined the other end of the parking lot, doors open to give the PCs cover. They'd been issued firearms, but no one was shooting just yet. The senior officer was still calling, via bullhorn, for the lancers to cease and desist. They probably didn't speak a word of English.
The Torchwood team was parked on the sidewalk, between the two opposing forces. Jack and Zevran joined Tosh and Gwen alongside the SUV. They had their own firearms drawn. Those who had firearms instead of swords, anyway. Jack poked his head up. He could see the lancers forming ranks. This was going to get real ugly, real fast. If only they could communicate with these people.
Ianto and Bannon trotted up.
"A little late to the party?" the captain said with sour humor.
"We've had some problems," Ianto replied. He drew his own gun and looked across the battlefield.
"Hasn't everyone?"
The elf went to his partner, also sizing up the foreign combatants. "Hey, are those the hussaria?"
Jack looked over. "You know these guys?"
Bannon shrugged at him. "They look like the Polonian Winged Hussars."
"Do you speak their language?" How lucky could these elves be?
Zevran said, "I know several choice curses and insults in Polonian."
Bannon looked at his friend. "What was that, that Anborn was always yelling at you?"
"Bzdury?"
"No, no; when he got really sick of you and wanted you to shut up. 'Tak'?"
"No, that means 'thank you.'"
There was a shouted command from the lancers' side of the field. The police leveled their weapons. A bloodbath was about to break out - dammit!
"'Tacht'!" Bannon said, apparently it was the word he'd been looking for. He jumped up and ran out into the lot towards the horsemen. "Tacht!" he was yelling. The Torchwood crew all stood up, watching the suicidal little elf.
"Hold your fire!" Jack yelled back towards the police. The command was echoed via bullhorn a moment later.
===#===
"Tacht! Tacht, hussaria!" Bannon stopped several yards away from the lancers, his arms spread, his hands empty of weapons.
The hussars grumbled and yelled to each other. Then one, apparently in charge, quieted them. He barked a challenge at Bannon.
"I don't speak Polonian," he said very slowly. "But I'm a friend. Friend!"
They looked dubious. Bannon met the commander's eyes and beckoned him forward. The man narrowed his gaze. Bannon glanced over his shoulder; Zevran, the captain, and the others were walking up behind him.
"Friends," Bannon insisted. He brought his hands together and clasped them. "We want to help you." He moved his hands together in a horizontal circle, then mimed lifting one with the other. He pointed at the hussars.
Their commander chewed his lip a moment. Bannon beckoned him over again, and then cast around on the ground for a stick to use to draw in the dust. He was thwarted by the fact they were standing on black paving. But he spied a pebble and crouched to grab it.
The commander dismounted and walked over, three of his lieutenants following. Bannon scratched stick figures on the pavement: horses and riders with wings and sticks. "Hussaria," he said, and pointed at the lancers. The commander nodded.
Bannon drew a big, jagged line over and in front of the stick-horses. He gestured into the sky, indicating a big rip.
"Da." They nodded more vigorously and gathered closer.
The elf drew arrows from the horsemen, through the rip, and to the other side. He gestured around the courtyard. "Here." He pointed down where they were.
The commander asked something, gesturing at Bannon and those behind him.
The elf glanced back again. The city guardsmen were also now cautiously approaching. Bannon pointed at the people with him. "Torchwood."
"Tortchvood."
"Da." Bannon drew a line of shield-bearers next to where the arrow had landed, indicating the defenders. "Do any of you speak common?" he asked. They looked blank. "Dalish? Elvhenan?" More shaking of heads.
"Hable Antivan?" Zevran added.
"Español?" Ianto tried. "Castellano? Italiano? Parles-vous Francais?"
"Sprechen sie Deustch?" Jack tossed in.
Ianto shot him a look. "I didn't know you spoke German."
The captain shrugged. "You go through World War II twice, you pick up some stuff." This earned him an even stranger look.
The hussaria seemed passingly familiar with German. The commander called for one of his men.
Jack turned and waved the all-clear to the police. When the lieutenant and a couple of her men came over, he started bossing them around. "You're going to need a paddock, a field, or something to contain these horses. Find out if any of your people speak any German. Better yet, get someone on the horn to the Polish embassy and have them send someone over. They'd probably be happy to get some first-hand accounts of their history."
"You can't just foist these people off on us!"
"Why? Because it would have been more convenient for your people to have killed them all?" Jack snarled at her, and she blanched. "It would have been a bloodbath, but I suppose that's easier than just talking and trying to communicate." She flinched again, and he turned away. He paused a moment next to the elf. "Excellent job."
Bannon nodded in acknowledgement. His eyes flicked past Jack for a moment, noting how he was pissing off the local constabulary.
Jack continued on to meet his liaison and direct the hussars in passable German. To her credit, Lt. Somers (as he found out when he finally asked her name) organized her troops and handled the situation with competence. That didn't save them from a "Bloody Torchwood" as Jack and his team left the site.
They regrouped by the SUV. "Okay, Tosh," Jack started as he strode up, "what have we got?"
She had the side door open as she tapped on the back seat terminal. "This ripple is passing outward. UNIT and national response teams are tracking the anomalies."
"Then if there's nothing else local, we should regroup-"
"Abbot Harkness!"
Jack turned as a hirsute, burly man rushed up to him. He dropped to his knees and seized the captain's hand. "In sooth, the Good Lord is merciful! Thou hast come!" He started planting bristly kisses on Jack's knuckles. "Take mercy 'pon a sinner, an thou wilt!"
"Uh...," Jack said, his brows going up. "What's this?"
"Ah, 'Abbot' Harkness," Ianto explained, "this is Tomas the farrier." Jack glared when it seemed the Welshman was going to stop there. "Er, Brother Bannon and I have told him about the quiet cell we have at Torchwood Monastery. Where he can meditate and take sanctuary against demonic influence."
"Because you can speak Old English."
"Actually, it's Middle English. Old English would be unin-" He broke off as Jack gave him the spare me the trivial details and get the the point look. "Yes, right."
"And he's not sedated because...?"
"It didn't seem necessary, sir. He did come quite willingly."
"'Pon my oath, Good Abbot, I fain would beg thy sanctuary!"
"How am I-?"
Jack was interrupted as Bannon came over and rescued his hand from the enthusiastic supplicant. "Let me show ye to the Revered Father's coach."
Jack shot Ianto another look; Ianto just shrugged. It seemed this elf was a talented liar. He could be trouble. Meanwhile, perhaps Zevran could talk to the medieval workman. If they were going to foist this guy off on him, he was going to delegate.
Bannon reappeared. "Yeah, it's a lot more 'helpful' when you're not poisoning people and tossing them in your dungeon without any explanation." He gave Jack a pointed look.
The captain reined back any reply, not willing to get involved in this argument. And he sure as hell wasn't going to apologize for doing his job. "All right," he told his team at large, "back to the Hub. Tosh, priority one is the search for Bilis. We have to get on top of this thing before it gets any worse."
===#===
"...death tolls continue to rise around the globe. Beijing has closed its borders and airspace, shooting down any persons or vehicles approaching the city or attempting to leave.
"Epidemics have closed down over 350 cities worldwide.
"In New York City, a giant alien monstrosity appeared near Times Square, crushing half a block. Luckily for New Yorkers, the shock of its arrival seems to have killed the creature before it could go on a rampage and cause more destruction.
"Meanwhile, the Republic of Kenya has been unable to approach the machinery that has been pumping poison gas into the atmosphere near the Tsavo East National Park. The last elephant herd has succumbed to the poison, after all rescue efforts met with fatal results. Ecologists fear this will only be the first wave of extinctions if this machinery is not shut down. The presidents of Kenya and Tanzania are considering the ramifications of nuclear detonation in this area, as conventional bombardment has failed to penetrate the machinery's defenses.
"Closer to home, Defence Minister Harold Saxon has called in an airstrike against the 'Beast of Edinburgh,' which paleontologists have identified as a member of the Brachiosaur family."
Toshiko and Gwen watched in silence as the Tornado GR4s strafed the misplaced dinosaur. It's low-pitched cries sounded like a humpback whale screaming. It took several passes for the fighter jets to bring it down.
Tosh swiped at a tear that had escaped. It was stupid, crying over an animal when so many people were dying. But it was all so senseless. Was that all the universe was? Weapons, diseases, deadly species, killing and dying? Where was the science? The cures, the miraculous devices, the sense of wonder, beauty and creation?
She tried to tell herself it was there. All the benign and wonderful things were there; it was just that the horrible and cruel things demanded immediate attention. Perhaps in the months ahead, Torchwood would be called to handle those benign things: creatures that slipped away and hid, plants indigenous to other worlds, bits of technology that humans coveted.
If the world wasn't shaken apart before then.
On the newsfeed, various religious representatives were giving their opinions. "Judgment Day is finally here. This is the End of Days."
Gwen hit the mute. "That's what people keep saying. The End of Days; it's the end of the world."
Ianto read from a dog-eared Bible. "I heard, but did not understand, and I said, 'Master, what is the end of all these things?' And he said, 'Go, Daniel, for these things are closed up and sealed until the end of time.'
"Many will be purified, cleansed, and refined by these trials. But the wicked will continue in their wickedness, and none of them will understand. Only those who are wise will know what it means."
"What does it mean?" Zevran asked.
"It means you can keep being wicked, because you obviously don't know," Bannon told him. The other elf slugged him in the arm.
Ianto put the Bible aside and pulled out a bigger and dustier leather-bound tome. "Then there's this." He flipped through the musty pages. "Abaddon, the Great Devourer. Ah, here we go." He traced a finger down the page. "And lo, he shall rise from his earthly prison, the Eater of Life, the demon Abaddon. And wheresoever he shall stretch out his hand, his shadow will fall and reap the living like wheat before the scythe.
"Iblis, the Evil, shall herd the non-believers, the sinners of the Earth, sowing the seeds of dissent, wreaking deadly havok on mankind."
Jack came over. "You twenty-first century humans, I swear. You think you're so advanced, but as the slightest hint of the inexplicable, you turn back to your magic and superstition, and any story that denies the randomness of existence."
"What's wrong with magic?" Bannon wanted to know, but the captain ignored him.
"I can guarantee, the world is not about to end."
"Because," Tosh ventured, "it's still here in the fifty-first century?"
"Exactly!"
This made Toshiko feel a lot better. She shared a relieved smile with Gwen, but the other woman's eyes still held doubt. Tosh began thinking again of the impossible and the improbable, and the chance that Jack was lying to them.
Her thoughts were interrupted by an exclamation from Ianto. "Iblis, the Evil!"
"What?" Jack scoffed. "You know him?"
"No, but you might. Aren't you trying to find that Bilis fellow?" The Welshman's words began to tumble out faster. "Iblis is an anagram of Bilis, and I did see that name today!"
"Where?"
"There was a sign..." Ianto's eyes darted as he accessed his visual memory. "It caught my eye, because I thought it was a typo for 'manager.' But it must have been 'Manger.'"
"Where did you see it?" Jack's whole body tensed, ready to take off like a hound on the scent. Tosh held her breath while Ianto tried to remember.
"It was Derbyshire! Across from the sporting goods store. It was an antique clock shop!"
"That's our man! Gwen," Jack barked, "let's go!" They rushed out the cog door.
===#===
Toshiko went back to Ianto's computer station to check on the Rift calculations, which she'd restarted from her remote connection in the SUV. "Should I cancel the search for Bilis?" she wondered aloud.
"I wouldn't," Ianto said. "This lead could be just a coincidence, a dead end."
Tosh looked at him. "A time-changing creepy dude in an antique clock shop? I hardly think so."
Ianto shrugged. "Let's hope Jack and Gwen find the solution to all our problems." His eyes wandered towards the rail where the two elves were perched.
"And guess what," the blond said to his companion with a dazzling grin. "I am the Champion of Torchwood! I now outrank you."
"Says who?" Bannon griped.
"The very handsome captain," Zevran leered. "When we had to face the Snickersnacks and duel for sovereignty of the world!"
Tosh and Ianto shared a look even as Bannon rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you're the Champion of Bullshitting."
"Tcha! You're jealous. Admit it!"
"Yeah, right."
"All right," Ianto interrupted. "There's no need for another argument. Again."
The elves grumped and folded their arms. Honestly, you'd think Ianto had taken away sweets from some unruly children.
"Don't you have anything to eat around here?" Bannon complained.
"You can't be hungry again," Ianto said.
Zevran said, "Not again - still!"
"Grey Wardens eat a lot," Bannon insisted.
"It's what makes us so ridiculously awesome!"
Tosh choked down a laugh at Ianto's barely-heard comment on that. Then the Welshman sighed and headed for the kitchenette. "Come on, I'll see what I can dig up."
===#===
The road was still closed, though the dead 'dragon' had been cleared away. Gwen thought Jack was going to knock over the barricade with the SUV, but he stopped short and killed the engine. "We're here," he reported over the comm. "Where's this clock shop?"
"Across from the sporting goods store," Ianto replied. "About 25 meters past where we killed the Allosaur." There was some sort of commotion on the other end of the line before Ianto clicked off, in the middle of explaining that by 'we' he meant the members of the Torchwood team.
Gwen shook her head as she caught up with Jack's long strides. They came upon the storefront. 'A Stitch in Time,' the sign read. 'Antique timepieces repaired and restored.' It looked dark, but what would Bilis be doing? Staying home and cowering under the bed?
The door was unlocked and opened with a friendly jingle. The air was dry and smelled old, like the air of an antique bookshop. Clocks of various period styles lined the walls and shelves, filling the still air with their quiet ticking. A baroque, gold-leafed Louis XIVth clock sat on a shelf, in pristine condition. A workbench further back held an array of cogworks, springs, and mysterious brass constructions.
"There's clocks here from so many different eras," Gwen mused.
"He hops back in time, grabs the latest model, then brings it here to sell as a valuable antique," said Jack with a tinge of admiration. "Not a bad racket."
"But how does he do that? Travel back and forth in time?"
"I am cursed, it seems."
Gwen and Jack startled and looked to the doorway of the back room. Bilis stepped out, his yellow cravat crisply folded, his grey hair regimentally slicked back over his head which, now that one mentioned it, did closely resemble a turnip. His eyes appeared black for a moment, but as he moved further into the light, Gwen could see they were merely a watery blue.
"I find that I can step between eras as easily as stepping into another room," he continued in a dry, papery voice.
"You're from 1942," Jack said.
"As are you, Captain," Bilis replied easily. "Oh, but that's not quite accurate, is it?"
"Not quite."
"And, unlike myself, you cannot simply step into the next room. You need to force yourself through the cracks. And when you returned, the cracks began to widen." He spread his hands. "That's the price you pay."
Gwen kept a sharp eye on both men through this exchange. Bilis seemed in unusually cooperative mood; she wasn't sure she trusted it. She sensed Jack tensing up with all this talk of time-walking, and Bilis' extensive knowledge of it. She needed to keep the mood civil and cordial. Get Bilis on their side. "You understand what's happening?" she asked him.
He turned his watery gaze on her. "This city is built on a Rift in space and time," he explained, just as Jack had once explained it to her. "The captain's passage has damaged it. The crack was opened too wide. It set off a chain of stress through the entire Rift."
"So you know what caused it," she went on. "Do you know how it can be repaired?"
"The Rift must be opened fully."
"No way," Jack cut him off.
"Can we even do that?" Gwen asked.
"The means are at your disposal," Bilis said with a sly look at the captain.
"Gwen, you saw what happened when the Rift was opened yesterday. We'd be risking the lives of millions of people."
"The Rift was opened improperly," Bilis explained. "It must be reset. Then, it will be able to draw back all the detritus that it has spewed forth."
"Like flushing a cosmic toilet?" Jack scoffed.
Bilis shrugged with a moue of distaste. "A crude, but accurate, analogy."
"And you're the cosmic janitor," Jack said, almost laughing. Then he pulled his gun. "You know so much about it, you can come back with us and explain it in great detail."
Bilis blinked in surprise. Hesitantly, he put his hands up, his mouth open in fear. "Of course, I will cooperate in any way I can." He shot a pleading look at Gwen, but she didn't protest Jack's handling of the situation.
"And you can also tell us why some of my people saw you down in the Vault, just before all hell broke loose. Let's go."
Bilils turned to come out from behind the workbench, took a step, and vanished.
"Dammit!" Jack shoved his gun back in its holster and keyed his comm as he turned for the door. "Trace any temporal energy in and around the clock shop. And scan for other temporal signatures, possibly near the old dance hall. We cannot lose this guy!" He flung the door open and swept outside.
Gwen hesitated a moment, casting about for any clues into the enigma of Bilis. Something that would let her read him, predict him. But the faces of the clocks were blank, the chatter of their talk empty.
She turned for the door and came face to face with Bilis. She gasped.
"I'm so sorry," he said.
"What?"
"I'm sorry for your loss." His voice was weighted with regret, and she felt dread growing in the pit of her stomach.
"What do you mean?" she asked, almost afraid to know.
"The lives of those touched by the Rift are random. It is a shame it touched one you love."
"Rhys?" But he was home safe, wasn't he? No, the Rift did not know the difference between a home and a workplace, market, street, forest, or field. It was all through the city, everywhere. She staggered back and bolted out the door.
===#===
Jack was outside on the street, looking at a whole lot of nothing on the scanner of his wrist strap when Gwen blew past him. "I don't see any sign of- Gwen?"
He sprinted after her. She yanked open the driver side door of the SUV and climbed up. "Get in!"
He swung around and clambered into the front seat as she pulled out in reverse. "Did you see Bilis?"
"He said Rhys was in trouble."
It was Jack's turn to grip the dashboard as the black SUV tore through the streets.
===#===
Gwen kept redialing Rhys' phone. All she got was 'Not In Service.' What the bloody hell did that mean? Didn't he have voice mail? If his phone was off, it should go to bloody voice mail on the bloody servers!
She threw the phone down in frustration. Jack bent to retrieve it. "You want to tell me what's going on?"
"I don't know!" she snapped. "I won't know until we get there." She was not about to take Bilis at his word. No, he couldn't be right. He couldn't know.
===#===
When she burst into the apartment she shared with Rhys, she knew instantly something was wrong. She denied the feeling. "Rhys?"
The apartment was silent, hollow. Devoid. Gwen caught a whiff of gas and moved around the kitchenette counter to the oven.
The oven door was open, the gas turned on. She grabbed the knob and cut it off. She expected to see Rhys lying here on the tiles, a victim of a simple slip and fall, the daft idiot. But there was nothing. A dish of uncooked lasagna sat crookedly athwart one of the stove burners.
"Where's he gone? Rhys is gone." She was not about to give in to panic, oh no. Not PC Gwen Cooper. There was a rational explanation, there was a rational plan of action.
"He could have just stepped out."
"He didn't just step out! His phone is gone. He left the oven door open the gas on. He's gone, Jack!"
The captain flipped open his wrist strap, frowning as he scanned the apartment. "There's residual Rift energy spiking all over, here."
"What does that mean?" Gwen turned, looking for clues, any sign. "Something came through? Something took him? Scared him? Chased him off?" There was nothing. Nothing out of place but a lopsided dish of lasagna. Gwen's mind refused to process it. "Where is it, then? And where's he gone?"
"It's a negative Rift spike," Jack said with maddening calm. "The Rift opens out here in Cardiff, but it isn't just the exit pipe. Sometimes it takes things away."
"And it took Rhys?" Gwen raked her hand through her hair. Of all the random shit the Rift caused, of all the things Torchwood were trained to handle, why the hell did it have to take Rhys? He did not sign up for that! God, he still thought she worked at the police department!
"I'm sorry."
"Well, where is he?"
"I don't know, Gwen."
She marched over to him, determined to shake the answers out of him if she had to. "Well bloody find him!"
"I can't!"
"Use your damned future technology, your alien devices! Scan the Rift signature, the damned temporal energy!"
"The Rift encompasses all of time and space," Jack told her harshly. "He could have landed in tomorrow, or a million years ago, or on any of billions of planets, or in the heart of a sun, or just nowhere, in empty space!"
Gone. Just like that, snuffed out of existence. Dead or not dead, but she'd never know. Gwen was not about to accept that. Not without a fight. "Then bloody find him! I know you don't give a damn about him, but I do, and I don't care if you have to comb the bloody universe! You find him, and you bring him back!"
Jack gripped her arms, looked down into her face, his eyes steel. "I'm sorry, Gwen. There's nothing I can do."
"Then what the hell is the point of you, bloody Jack Harkness?" She shoved him. She hadn't meant to do it so hard, but she wanted out of his grip, out of his hands; she wanted him out of the bloody way. The couch caught him behind the shins and he staggered against it.
She didn't care; she rushed past him, that damned, indestructible man. What would he care about Rhys? She pelted down the stairs and to the SUV, her blood pounding in her ears so that she barely heard Jack calling her name.
It was too late for that. If he wouldn't do anything, she'd find someone who could.
===#===
Jack bolted out the door, but the SUV was already tearing away, leaving rubber tracks at the curb. "Shit," he huffed. He didn't really blame Gwen. She was upset, and upset women... He keyed his comm. "Ianto."
"Sir?"
"I'm at Gwen's apartment. Come pick me up."
"Where's Gwen?"
"She took the SUV. Just come get me," he said, cutting off any more questions. He had to get back to the Hub, to guard the Rift.
===#===
Gwen burst into the clock shop, making the bells jangle. "Bilis!" She stopped herself, drew what was meant to be a calming breath. "Bilis?" she called again in a less threatening and angry voice.
"I'm right here, my dear."
Despite her determination not to jump when he appeared, she did so anyway. "Rhys," she started, and tried to steady her voice. "He's gone. How did you know?"
"It's part of my curse," he said. "To know things, to know the future, but to be unable to affect it."
She nodded. "Can I get him back? This... this cosmic flush thing - when it takes back all the chaos it's deposited here...," she gestured, unable to keep her hands still lest they shake, "Will it... can it bring Rhys back?"
Bilis suddenly caught her hands in his, stilling them. His fingers were all bone and sinew, his skin like dried parchment. "I promise you, Gwen Cooper, if you see through to opening the Rift, your beloved will be returned to you."
His eyes held her, with some strength behind them she'd not noticed before. She felt frozen. Then she blinked. "How? How can you promise this? How can you know?"
With a disappointed frown, he let her hands slip from his. "I know more about the Rift than any other living being."
"The elves - Zevran - said that you told them you were the guardian of the Rift, before Torchwood."
He nodded.
"And what is it you want? Why do you want the Rift opened?"
"I want the same thing everyone else wants. An end to this chaos." He clasped his hands. "Do you not trust me?"
"Jack says opening the Rift is dangerous."
His eyes narrowed. "And do you trust him?"
"With my life." And Bilis may not have noticed the slight hitch in her voice, but she did. As if there were an unspoken 'but.' Then she realized...
"We don't know who you are, or why you're here."
"Are you even human?"
"There's nothing I can do."
And she recalled the faces of those children, lost in time, as Jack left them behind.
She stepped back from Bilis. She'd stopped shaking. "How do I open the Rift?"
"Your friends have the key," he said with a faint smile. "All you need do is see that they use it."
===#===
Gwen found Owen pacing in the hall behind the tourist shop's secret door. "What are you doing here?"
He turned to her, his defenses down. She saw the vulnerable look in his eyes. "I saw Diane. I... this is all my fault. I have to fix this. We need to open the Rift."
"And you know how."
"Yeah. If we can convince Tosh to help."
"Come on."
===#===
When Jack and Ianto got back to the Hub, everyone was there; the new guys, and even Owen. "What's he doing here?"
Owen opened his mouth, but Gwen beat him to it. "Jack, just listen a moment."
"We need to open the Rift," said Owen.
"Bilis is right," said Gwen. "Opening the Rift will reset everything."
Jack shook his head. "Bilis is manipulating you. Can't you see that?"
"No," Toshiko said. "The calculations prove it. The Rift will open along every previous point and undo what's been done. Everything will go back to normal."
"And we'll go home," Bannon said. Zevran nodded, and the two of them didn't look as if they'd be swayed.
"It doesn't work that way," Jack told them.
Owen said, "I saw Diane. She told me we had to open the Rift."
"How could you see her? She flew off into the Rift weeks ago. She doesn't even know what the Rift is," Jack insisted.
"That's what Lisa said," Ianto added.
"And my mother," said Tosh. "The veil between the living and dead will tear if these Rift Storms continue. We have to stop it."
"Opening the Rift is not going to stop it!" Jack raised his voice, since they were having a hard time seeing reason.
"Sitting here, doing nothing like you want us to do is not going to stop it, either!" Owen turned and left the workstation area. "I'm doing what has to be done." He stormed across the gantry leading past the water tower, and down towards the controls of the Rift manipulator.
Ianto left Jack's side to go after him. "Make sure you stop him this time," the captain growled.
Ianto looked back, just briefly. His face was a cold mask, showing nothing.
Feeling an icy thread of doubt, Jack looked to Toshiko. She lowered her gaze, not meeting his eyes. Mute, she followed Ianto. The two elves slunk off with her.
Gwen came to him. Surely, she wouldn't turn against him. But, "It has to be done, Jack," was all she said before she, too, walked away.
And Jack was left standing alone.
He closed his eyes. Just like that, his team had deserted him. His team, closer than family, more loyal than friends. The people he'd hand-picked to follow him, to guard the world at large. Now they were about to destroy it. The cold spread over him, numbing him.
Above family, friends, loyalty, he had a duty. Against the six billion people of planet Earth, against the entire future of humanity, personal feelings didn't rate a grain of sand. He took a breath and severed his emotions.
He drew his Webley, his one faithful companion through the years. It shouldn't come as such a shock to him, being left alone to carry on. No matter how many times he went through it, it always seemed to come unexpectedly. He released the catch, and opened the well-oiled frame to check that it was loaded and ready.
Yes. There was one bullet for each of them.
===#===
Owen stood at the Rift manipulator controls, the expert in operating this alien thing by dint of the fact he was the only one to ever use it, once before. Ianto stood at his shoulder, awaiting his turn to input his retinal scan and password into the machine's new security lock. Gwen stood by Tosh, who had her laptop perched on one side of the manipulator's cabinet, so she could access the calculation results, which would give them the number sequence to input into the machine.
Bannon and Zevran stood on the other side of the machine, preparing to return home. They checked their weapons, including the shiny new compound bows Ianto had bought them. And Bannon checked his pockets.
"Did you get the crushing prison?" Zevran asked him.
"I couldn't find it," the other elf said, disappointed. "But I have a bunch of these magic finger spells."
"There had better not be any silverware in there," Ianto told them.
"Of course not," Bannon said, in all wide-eyed innocence.
"The world's going to hell and Tea-boy's worried about the silverware," Owen griped. "Put in your damned password." Ianto took his place in front of the retinal scanner.
From behind them came Jack's voice. "Move away from the console!"
They turned. Jack had his sidearm leveled at them. "Jack!" Gwen exclaimed in shock.
"Don't make me shoot you, because I will kill each and every one of you if I have to." His eyes were hard, his face was stone, carved into a threatening snarl. He meant it. "And you two! Stay where I can see you!"
Gwen glanced back at the elves. They froze in mid-sneak and slowly put their hands up.
"We have to do this, Jack," Owen said, facing his former commander. "It's the only way to stop this madness."
Gwen said calmly, "Opening the Rift will set everything back to the way it originally was."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Jack snapped at her. "The Rift is not some magic wand. It is not a big 'reset' button. You'll crack this planet like an egg!"
"You don't know that," Tosh shot back. "You haven't seen the calculations. You wouldn't even try!"
"I do know that you do not mess with the Rift. Ever!" He took a breath, steadied his two-handed shooting stance. "Now I'm giving you all an order. Move away from that console."
No one moved. Owen said, "I'm relieving you of command."
"You don't even work here any more!"
"I don't give a rat's arse! You're not fit to give us orders!"
"This judgment call from the guy who walked bare-handed into a weevil cage just to prove how tough he is?"
Owen flinched back. Gwen raised her hands slowly. "Jack, put the gun down."
Ianto said, "If you'd just listen to reason."
The captain's eyes darted from one to the other. "Oh, you're a united front now? Did you forget how your comrades pumped your girlfriend full of bullets?" Ianto's face went pale. "After he hid a deadly cyborg from us? And you, Toshiko," Jack turned his cold steel gaze on her. "So desperate for a scrap of attention, you'll shag any alien with a pretty trinket?"
Shamed, the quiet young woman bowed her head.
Gwen walked calmly towards Jack. "You have to stop this." He had no choice but to lower his weapon or shoot her now. He couldn't do that. She knew him. He would see reason. "This is necessary. We know the risks-"
"Obviously, you don't."
"But this will save lives, Jack! It's our only chance to bring Rhys back." He had to see how important this was to her.
His eyes narrowed. "Right," he sneered. "And you care so much about him that you spend half your time in Owen's bed."
Gwen felt the blood drain from her face. Jack knew? He knew about that? But how long had ne known? All these weeks, he'd never given any indication that he'd even suspected! Toshiko had thrown her sneaking glances, but Jack hadn't even blinked. Didn't he even care? It was as if he expected her to buckle under the stress and become unfaithful, as if that were part and parcel of doing business at Torchwood. Losing your humanity, that was the entry cost. And then there was the retirement package, erasing your life as if none of it really mattered.
Furious, Gwen lashed out and slugged him, gun or no gun. Her fist cracked against his jaw, and he crumpled. Owen and Ianto closed in on either side of her, jumping him while he was vulnerable.
Owen came up with the gun. As Jack shoved Ianto aside and tried to sit up, three shots rang out. Blood exploded frm Jack's chest and he collapsed, dead. Tosh screamed at the sudden noise. And even Gwen heard herself saying, "Oh my God!"
"Well it's a damn sight less than what he'd do to us," Owen snarled. Holding the gun pointed at the ceiling, he returned to the console. "Besides, didn't you say it wouldn't be permanent?"
"It isn't." Gwen pressed a hand to her chest and felt her heart galloping. It was not permanent.
"Tosh," Owen barked, "get his retinal scan while he's docile. Ianto, what's his password?"
"I'll get it."
Toshiko stared, frozen, at Jack's body. It was always a shock to see someone die. Gwen didn't think she would ever get used to it, no matter how many times she witnessed it, not even with Jack. She gripped Tosh's hand. "Come on; I'll help, yeah?"
They knelt at his head, and Gwen pulled his eyelids back from his unmoving, vacant eye. Tosh ran the scanner over it.
They all submitted to the scan and entered their passwords. Owen returned to the main controls. "Tosh, what's the number sequence?"
"Hang on, it's just about finished." The laptop blipped. Toshiko blinked at it.
Ianto moved over and looked at the screen. "Oh."
"What is it?" Owen demanded.
"It's just a number," Toshiko said.
"Well, what number?"
Ianto quoted direly, "Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number."
Gwen and Owen moved around and looked at the screen.
666.
"Well what's that mean?" Gwen asked.
"Nothing!" Tosh insisted. "It's just a number. There's an infinite number of them - it could be any number. They're just numbers."
"Right," Owen said, moving back to the console. He punched in the sequence. Everyone else gathered around, subconsciously holding the rail that circled the Rift manipulator's central column. Owen put his hand on the control lever and looked to each of them. "We're agreed, right? This is the best course of action." Now was the last chance to back out.
Bannon gripped Zevran's hand. "We're ready; let's go!"
Toshiko nodded.
Gwen said, "Agreed."
And Ianto, "Do it."
Owen threw the lever.
===#===
And the world cracked like an egg.
===X===
End Notes:
2500 Bloodsong points to the fans of Misfits of Science, if you had fond memories of the ice cream truck!
1000 Bloodsong points to fans of Soldier who recognied Sgt Todd and his platoon. If you haven't seen that movie (the one with Kurt Russell), I highly recommend it. The last 1/3 is kinda Rambo-ish, but the rest of it is really deep and thought-provoking.
5000 Bloodsong points if you recognized this:
In New York City, a giant alien monstrosity appeared near Times Square, crushing half a block. Luckily for New Yorkers, the shock of its arrival seems to have killed the creature before it could go on a rampage and cause more destruction.
...as Ozymandias' ploy in Watchmen. ;)
For all you headbangers out there:
"Iblis, the Evil, shall herd the non-believers, the sinners of the Earth, sowing the seeds of dissent, wreaking deadly havok on mankind."
This is Ianto, doing a riff on my misquote of Testament's "Alone in the Dark." It's supposed to be "Aimless, the people huddled in a pack, wreaking deadly havok on mankind." I always thought it sounded like "Iblis, the Evil" doing something. :X
Bilis also gives props to Savatage. "That's the Price you Pay" is one of their songs from the album Hall of the Mountain King.
And yes, Ianto quotes Iron Maiden, "The Number of the Beast." (Which quotes from the Bible.)