A/N: here is some Troy closure. Welcome new subscribers, feel free to leave a note.
Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian
No spoilers.
The kiss did help Jack dive into the ancient past. It was an anchor to present time. It was too easy to get lost in memories, there were so many of them and to think of the time before he wasn't able to stay dead was just mesmerising. It was like looking at a stranger, someone that tried to avoid death and pain, who sought out pleasure and leisure, pretending that he was still at his quest to find Gray.
"Helen was crying when we got there. She was all dirty and crumpled" Jack told Ianto "not the beauty all spoke of but a frightened and broken woman desperate and blind with tears."
"Why was she crying?" Ianto was fascinated looking through the window, picturing that distant moment in time when he wasn't even a speck in this Universe.
"She didn't cried, she sobbed, her whole face was swollen, she looked like she sat there and cried for days" Jack frowned at the memory.
"Get a hold of yourself woman" Hector kneeled by her side "Everyone is looking for you, your husband is out there looking for you in the gutter and hollows."
"My husband will come here" she said with her voice high pitched "he'll never forgive me for escaping him, for escaping his captivity, he'll come here to claim me and he'll destroy the whole of Troy to do it. No one will be left standing. There will be blood everywhere. Everyone will die" she screamed.
Hector slapped her hard on her face.
"Woman control yourself" he said dangerously "you came here, Paris is now your husband, you're the princess of Troy, our walls and our swords will protect you from your puny husband who's nothing but small noble man. Where could he find such an army to invade Troy?"
Jasper felt shivers all over his skin. He knew history, he had to, but to see people who were now dead, alive and aware of their destiny was just wrong.
"His brother will help" she grabbed his arm. "They will come and plunder this land. Quick send me away, I'll get back to him and beg for mercy, he will have no reason to come if I get back."
"Then he'll come sooner" Hector shook her hand off "we'll show them we're weak and they'll come anyway. If they have decided they will come, not for you, but for our gold. We have always known that someone will come for our gold, we have much, and our prospering has been great. But we'll meet them in the battlefield and meet our destiny that the Gods have bestowed upon us."
"But you'll all die!" Helen cried. "Why should your children lose their fathers just for me to have my freedom?"
"I am not theirs to keep" Hector said sternly. "We're here on this Earth only as long as our gods let us. And our destiny will be their battle too and I hope it will be great one."
She looked at him suddenly calm.
"So you don't fear death? You don't fear your home being destroyed?" she looked at him with disbelief.
"I fear death and my home being destroyed" he answered "as I fear my children being fatherless, but I wouldn't be really living if I stumbled under the weight of that fear. My brother brought you here as his prize, his prey, more so his gift from the gods, his happiness. I accepted as I accept any gift the gods send us, with gratitude. Maybe your vision was true, maybe it was just a warning, but whatever comes, you will stand tall beside your husband, Prince Paris of Troy, and look upon invaders with high gaze because you were chosen. He chose you as his prize, he chose you for this exceptional life. If that life brings us death maybe with it something else comes to pass, something bigger than any of us."
She got up as he spoke and straighten her dress, wiped her eyes and her beauty could be seen even through her swollen cheeks.
"I'll go now" she said with dignity "and find my husband… after I freshen up."
She left and Jasper was left alone with Hector.
"You really meant that?" Jasper was baffled.
Hector looked at him as if he'd forgotten his presence.
"No" he said simply "but she doesn't have to know that. She needs to survive long enough to give us courage. Wars aren't really waged over women, but they are great excuse and great motivation. Having her behind our walls will give our men courage and in battle sometimes all that matters is belief."
"And what if she's right and your beliefs don't get you a win?" Jasper watched him trying to see fear but all he saw was determination and calmness.
"Then I'll die with my city, nothing lasts forever, not even mountains, not even gods, time gets to us all. If I die in battle it will be a remembered death, or I hope it will. To live well is good, but to die gloriously is godly."
"What did that teach you?" Ianto frowned. "That dying is good?"
"No" Jack smiled. "It taught me that the way you approach death marks your whole life. He strode towards death not stopping for a minute to fear, he lived, and he was remembered. He wasn't the victim of his fate, he took it and made it his own. But that wasn't the thing that marked me."
"What was?" Ianto stroked his face and Jack took his hand placing a kiss on his palm.
"The way he handled his men" Jack smiled. "I followed him home and as people approached him to inform him that Helen had been found he tapped each one of them, smiled and said 'thank you man, that's a great news'. He never once said I found her. And when we reached the citadel he instructed his men calmly to reinforce walls and gather supplies. When they asked why, he just smiled and said that they should always be ready for an infestation of pests and all laughed. He carried the burden of Helen's vision and didn't share it, he stayed in a good mood laughing and joking, even inviting me for dinner. At dinner I sat beside him looking at Helen in all her glory and modest Hector's wife beside her and I knew how great a king Hector would be, how great ruler and adviser. I cried a bit because he wouldn't be that, because he'd always be remembered like this, young and powerful."
Ianto still didn't understand. But he hesitated to ask.
"He taught me how to be a leader" Jack explained.
Ianto lit up with a smirk.
"I knew your vanity was in there somewhere" he snorted and Jack laughed, happy he had this moment where he didn't know the future. He didn't tell Ianto that Hector taught him how to carry the burden of knowing the future by yourself. And how, as years passed by he often wondered how he stayed so fierce to the end or did he fear before Achilles struck him down.
It took years but he thought about Hector through the years and hoped that he was more of Hector's type than Achilles. Someone that protects his home and loved ones, not someone who sought out gold to steal and villages to plunder just to get your name across the history. Although there was that time he fancied himself as a rogue, but luckily the Doctor came to cure him of that illusion.
Do review, you know I love those cookies. Now you can find me on Inkitt and see my new characters traveling around Universe dealing with sex change.