Thank you! It's good to be back. :)
I didn't watch Torchwood so I'm not sure I'm doing this justice. But I figure that since Jane doesn't know either that sort of balances it out.
I have a new goal. 100 reviews for this story. But I need your help. So yeah. Love you all. You're awesome. Have a virtual cookie. No I'm not bribing you. What ever gave you that idea? *sighs* Just read. We can discuss my morals another time.
The TARDIS hates the idea of landing. But the Doctor finally manages with our help. When we step out the doors, we find ourselves in a hallway. Alarms are blaring. And then...a sudden headache slaps me in the face.
I clutch my head as the screaming sound pierces my ears but no one else seems to hear it. I'm coughing. The air tastes bad and I can tell everyone else knows that. I'm rushed into the TARDIS and she immediately soothes my mind and I can breathe again.
The Doctor scans me with the screwdriver. "What on Earth was that?"
"It's not."
"Not what?" Rose raises her eyebrows at her husband.
"On Earth. Your mind tapped into some sort of frequency."
"Why didn't the rest of us," Meta wants to know.
"I don't know." The Doctor seems genuinely perplexed. Rose seems to think I know.
"I was here last time. I just heard about some of it. I don't know either." She sighs. So much for that plan then.
"We need to get to Jack." Rose reminds us of our plan and I'm grateful for the distraction. The Doctor lands again and this time we are more cautious when we step out.
What we see causes my heart to clench. Jack is on the floor holding the lifeless body of Ianto. I knew that he died, but seeing it hurts, and knowing that I'm too late to stop it hurts me more than anything else.
"Where the hell have you been?!" Jack shouts at us. His tear streaked face breaks my heart even more. He stands and faces off with the Doctor. Rose takes him into her arms and he sobs. I fall on my knees next to Ianto. I don't have enough energy to cry about it.
"It's not your fault." Meta crouches next to me.
"Maybe not completely. But I'm not blameless either. But there's nothing we can do now." I stand up. "Let's move to the next step."
Events unfold one by one after this. The Torchwood team, or what's left of it get back together. Jack briefs us on everything that has already happened. Including his involvement in 1965. The Doctor is furious with him. As am I. Only Rose forgives him immediately. More surprisingly, Meta forgives before I do.
Are attention turns to other events. Gwen tells us how the old man, Clem I believe, died. He was one of the children Jack handed over. I choke on my tears as I look at his body. Frail and bloody. He died in pain.
"What killed him?" Rose asks.
"Dunno. He clutched his head and pain and screamed. And then he just stopped. There was nothing I could do."
"A headache?" Meta gives me a significant look. The timing is the same. "You had one at the same time."
The Doctor scans me again. "It's got to be in your mind. But why not anyone else?"
Jack steps in. "He was connected to the 456. They connect to children. Jane, how old are you?"
I don't know where this is going. "At least twenty by now. Hardly a child."
"No, but your mind in on the same frequency." The Doctor cuts in.
"What's that mean?"
"You think on the same wavelength as a child would from this world. Faster with more imagination. Your time in the void froze your mind's development to a slower frequency."
Meta comes to a realization. "You told me you could slow time."
"No. I can think so fast that I can make it seem like time has stopped around me. But only for a moment and it's just thought. I can't move that fast." I correct him.
The Doctor is intrigued and starts to ask but Rose gets him back on track. We forget about that development for the time being since Rose looks pale.
There's no plan. There never is. And with Rose taken suddenly ill, Jack agrees that the Doctor needs to get her away from the situation. Meta and I stay to deal with the 456. I'd rather be anywhere else than in the middle of this.
"Uncle Jack!"
I don't know how it's going to get there, but I know that something will happen to Stephen.
"Hey there soldier." Jack hugs his grandson. When he introduces me to the young blond boy I resolve that I really must stop whatever it is. His mother Alice doesn't deserve to lose her son.
I'm not sure where Gwen and Rhys are exactly. Protecting children somewhere most likely. The human race makes me sick as I watch the leader agree to the demands of the 456. One by one, children are gathered to be handed over to a race that we know is up to no good.
Jack is all business. "If we cycle the wavelength back at them..."
The man called Dekker cuts him off. "I know what you're trying to do. A constructive wave. Do you think people aren't working on that all over the world? But it's never going to work. The effect would be like shouting at the 456, that's all. Just shouting."
"Why did Clem die?" Meta wants to know.
"It was the 456 that killed him," Johnson answers.
"But how did they do it? Why did they do it?" I ask the questions this time.
"We've got the recording here." Johnson brings it up on the laptop.
"His mind must have synced to the 456 back when he was a child. But they didn't need to kill him. He wasn't any threat," Meta reasons.
Jack finishes. "Unless maybe that connection hurt them." They grin at each other.
Johnson interrupts. "This is the 456 at the moment of his death. We've lifted the sound from the Thames House link." The sound is annoying and I cringe.
"That sound, Mister Dekker, what's that sound?" I ask.
"I don't know. It's new."
Jack shows some real excitement for the first time since we arrived. "Exactly. It's new. We don't have to analyse the wavelength, just copy it. Turn it into a constructive wave. But we've got no way of transmitting."
"Of course you have." I shoot Dekker a startled look. He couldn't mean...
"Shut up." Jack won't look at anyone.
"Same way as them." I have an overwhelming urge to wring Dekker's neck.
"We'll find something else," Meta catches on.
"What does he mean?" Johnson is confused.
"Don't listen to him." Jack is looking desperate.
"Dekker, tell me."
"The 456 used children to establish the resonance."
"Meaning what?"
I huff. "Really Johnson?" Dekker ignores me and answers the question. "We need a child."
Alice becomes concerned. "What do you mean?"
"Centre of the resonance. Oh, that child's going to fry."
My anger rises. "How can you look giddy with the thought of that?! How dare you!" Meta simply glares at him. No words are needed. He may be human, but the oncoming storm is still there.
"No, Dad. No, tell them no." Alice begs.
"One child or millions." My thoughts begin to race. I can't think fast enough to stop time completely. But it slows down as Alice begs again. "Dad, no. Dad, tell them no!"
"We're running out of time." I look at Meta as Johnson says this. His eyes widen and he shakes his head at me.
"Dad, no! No, Dad!"
I place my hand on Jack's shoulder and he looks at me. "I operate in the same frequency," I gently remind him.
I can see his emotions war on his face. Relief and pain and horror all at once. Alice is confused and still worried. Meta begins to frantically try to talk me out of it. The others are lost. But Jack and I don't take notice. We look at each other with a steady gaze.
He's uncertain. So I make it easier for him. "Is it really even a choice Captain? Really?"
He sighs and shakes his head. I nod. Meta shouts. "Ryder! You can't."
"Hold him back." I instruct people to make sure that Meta won't interfere. Jack quietly assures Alice that Stephen will be fine. I feel peace with that thought. I head to the platform and stand in the center as Jack moves to his position.
I smile at the familiarity. "Just like dimension hopping. Standing here giving orders. On your mark Harkness."
His face is grim and stoic. He begins to move. Heightening the frequency, using me as the epicenter. My mind that operates like a child. A mind that can connect to the 456. I allow the sound to run through me. I feel the high pitched squeal come from me and my mind knows that the children of earth follow me.
The sound raises pressure in my mind. It becomes increasingly painful to continue. But still, I don't fight it. I remember all the pain I've felt in my relatively short life, and this is bearable. Except it's not. As my awareness begins to fade, I know with certainty that this time I won't be waking up. My last thought is that I hope Rose can forgive me. I hope Meta will be all right. And then everything just...stops.
DW DW DW DW DW DW DW DW DW DW
Jack Harkness watches as the young woman called Lieutenant Jane Ryder falls to the ground. He watches as Meta is released and rushes to her lifeless form. He may be a soldier, but he's still a man. He may be immortal, but he's still human. And it's for those reasons that he begins to cry as he watches the Doctor's brother rock Ryder in his arms.
"Please wake up. Please. Don't leave me. Help her! Someone please! Why?! Why?! Please Jane. Please. Ryder they're safe now. You saved them. Now wake up."
Jack can't keep watching. It's tearing him apart. His daughter wants to know if he would have done it. If he would have used Stephen if Jane didn't do it. He can't answer, because he knows he would have. Because it wouldn't have been a choice. His grandson or the Earth's children. It wouldn't have been a choice. Not his to make. He hopes Alice will forgive him of that. But time is what she'll need for that.
The Doctor and Rose come and take Jane and Meta away. He won't talk to them. Rose is too busy crying for her dead friend and sister to try. But the Doctor does. But Jack just can't, and he's at least one man who understands that.
It's several months before he makes contact with people again. Too busy traveling. But Gwen comes. She asks him to stay, but he can't. Earth has gotten too small. So he leaves. And that's where he meets her. A woman with a long braid down her back. He doesn't recognise her at first. But her eyes give her away. Not the color or the shape but the expression behind them. Kindness and strength are in her eyes.
He doesn't know how she's possible. But there seem to be a lot of impossible people in the universe these days. The bartender gives him a note and he knows it's from her. 'She would want you to know. It was her choice and she didn't regret it. And his name is Alonzo if your interested."
The last part makes him raise his eyes in question. She gestures to the man next to him and he gives her a grateful smile. She nods her welcome and turns to walk away. And Jack knows it's all fine. Jane Ryder died for his grandson, and he would never forget that. And it would be fine. Because time can be rewritten, and that woman with familiar eyes had already written a lot. Jane would live. Even if it wasn't in this timeline. Ryder would survive. And so would he.