AN: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, commented, alerted or favourited. I really appreciate it. And it spurs me on to write faster !
Chapter 5
After witnessing the Master rape Jack, Owen and Ianto agreed to watch the DVDs together, instead of splitting them. This was mainly for Ianto's sake, as he was finding it very difficult to cope. Owen, not having had a close relationship with Jack, was finding it less traumatic.
As they watched the DVD following Jack's rape, they found out that Tish had known what was going on with Jack. After hearing the Master's threats, though, they couldn't blame her for keeping quiet. Ianto was, in fact, incredibly grateful to her for giving Jack some comfort.
Watching Tish with Jack gave Ianto a niggling feeling in the back of his mind. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he almost felt as though he had forgotten something important. When he thought about it, he realised that he'd been feeling that way for a while, but it was getting stronger.
"What happened to Tish?" asked Owen suddenly. "She could be a witness for Jack."
"I doubt it," Ianto answered sadly. "Her whole family were taken off before time was reversed. She wouldn't have any memory of the Valiant."
"Jesus, why didn't she say anything before she was taken off?" demanded Owen angrily.
"Maybe she didn't get the chance, or something happened to whoever she did tell," Ianto suggested. "She surely would have said something afterwards, if she did remember."
"You're probably right," agreed Owen, "but just to be sure, we should get Tosh to check what happened to her. And to verify that she doesn't remember. If she is a witness for Jack, we need to know."
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While Owen and Ianto watched the DVDs, Tosh set her latest search program, for Jack, running. While she waited for the results, Tosh took the first Valiant DVD, and started to check it. She picked that one because, compared to the later ones, it was innocuous. She did not really believe that anyone would fake DVDs showing such horrific scenes, but she harboured a faint hope that none of what they had seen was true. And she would be derelict in her duty if she did not check. She ran each frame through her program, looking for anything suspicious, which could indicate that the picture had been tampered with. There was nothing, no reason to believe that the DVDs were anything but what they seemed; an awful catalogue of atrocities perpetrated on Jack.
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Owen and Ianto were continuing their depressing task of watching the DVDs. The next couple showed more of the Master's usual treatment of Jack, the only difference being that Tish was brought in to clean him and the room afterwards. Then, on the third one, everything changed.
Jack was chained to the wall, and was, as usual, a bloody mess. Owen and Ianto watched as the Master walked into the room. For once he wasn't accompanied by his guards. He stopped in front of Jack, with his back to the camera, but they could hear every word of the conversation.
"So Freak, you amaze me," the Master said.
"Is it my sparkling personality?" responded Jack bravely.
"No, it's your ludicrous loyalty to your little gang," answered the Master. "I saw the way they all mutinied, and murdered you, before they released Abbadon. I suppose I should have stepped in then, being the Minister of Defence and all, but it was fascinating to watch you deal with him."
Ianto and Owen both cringed to hear the Master taunt Jack with that.
"You really owe them nothing. Yet, when I threaten them, you roll on your belly and let me do whatever I want to you. Why do you care what happens to them?"
"Loyalty is something you'd never understand," said Jack vehemently.
"Oh, I understand it. I just don't understand why you feel it for those double crossing, so called friends of yours." There was a pause while the Master paced around the room. Eventually he continued. "I'm bored of our little games. I need something new, and I'd like to see how deep that loyalty to your team really runs. Over the last month and a half you have seen first hand exactly what I'm capable of.."
Owen and Ianto also, by this time, understood that all too well.
"But it doesn't have to be that way," the Master purred. "I have a proposition for you."
"Here it comes," said Ianto to Owen, "this is when Jack gives in and agrees to work for him. And none too soon," he added with relief.
"Shush, or we'll miss something," Owen pointed out. They both fell silent.
"What sort of proposition?" Jack asked.
"I will go easy on you. No more deaths, no more days of torture before I kill you, and no more rape."
Knowing Jack intimately, Ianto saw the hope that tinged Jack's expression, although he was trying to hide it from the Master. He and Owen looked at each other, and smiled with relief that Jack's suffering would soon be over.
"I'm all for that, but what reason do I have to believe you?" Jack asked.
"You don't, but I am a man of my word. Even to the lower races like you. What have you to lose from giving it a try?"
"What do I have to do for this new arrangement?"
"That's the great thing," crowed the Master. "Nothing!"
"Come on, you can't expect me to believe that."
"Oh. Well. You do nothing, I turn my attention to your little friends, so they suffer instead of you."
"What the hell?" interjected Owen. And on the screen Ianto saw Jack close his eyes in despair.
"And if I say no?"
"Why would you do that? These people murdered you and betrayed you." The Master seemed genuinely mystified. "And I can do a lot less to them, than I can to you."
"I still care about them. How can I stand back and let you do that if I can prevent it," cried Jack
"If you say no, then you will have to play my new game."
"What game is that?"
"Oh, I've come up with a brilliant scenario," the Master declaimed exultantly, "You will work for me as my right hand man."
"You want me to work for you?" exclaimed Jack in shock.
"Oh don't be ridiculous, that would be way too boring. I don't mean really work for me. I mean you appear to work for me. And you'd better be convincing. Any hint that it's not true, and I'll torture all of them, and you." The Master paused to run his hand suggestively up Jack's naked chest. "And, behind the scenes, we'll carry on as we have been, no concessions. I'll ask you once a month if you want to continue, or accept the other offer." He smirked, "they are going to hate you. It'll be fascinating to see how long it takes you to go for the other option."
"No," whispered Ianto in horror. "No Jack. Not for us. Not for me."
"Or will you go for it now?" the Master continued.
Jack looked sick, and there was no longer any hope in his eyes. "You know I don't have a choice. I can't let you torture them."
Watching, Ianto could only whisper "no," again. Owen was rigid with shock.
The Master laughed, "oh you will eventually. But for now we need to make you presentable." Jack was covered with open wounds, and looked like death. "No one is going to believe you work for me looking like that." And with that, he pulled a gun and shot Jack through the head.
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As Owen stopped the DVD, they looked at each other in shock and disbelief. Sick with dread, Ianto found his gaze dragged to the box of DVDs. Nine months of DVDs. So seven and a half months of recordings after Jack had announced he was working for the Master. How could they ever have believed that Jack would be OK after that time? Would the Master have bothered making recordings of an empty room, or of Jack well and unharmed?
Even then, Ianto didn't want to believe what he had just heard. "Tell me I misunderstood," he begged Owen, "tell me that Jack didn't just agree to be tortured just to protect us."
Owen just shook his head in misery, remembering the verbal abuse he had heaped on Jack. "No, you're not wrong, I wish to god you were. I can't believe it. How could Jack fool us all for so long? How could we not have seen that he was acting a part?"
And Jack had been totally convincing thought Ianto, with ever growing horror. After their initial denial, he and the others had never even entertained the thought that he had not betrayed them. And Jack had never gone back on the deal, no matter how cruelly they had treated him. He started to shake, and greyness edged his vision. Staggering to his feet, he ran out of the boardroom, desperate to get away from the visual reminders of his betrayal.
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By the time Owen had gathered his wits, Ianto was out of the Hub. Owen hurried after him, knowing that the younger man was in no state to be left on his own. He had to search for Ianto, but finally ran him to ground in a pub that the team occasionally frequented, a mile from the Hub.
By the time Owen arrived, Ianto was already drunk. He had gone straight for the hard stuff, and was on his fifth whiskey.
"Ianto mate," said Owen gently, "this isn't going to help."
"Well, what is?" demanded Ianto, "what could possibly help with this?"
Owen had no answer. How could anyone deal with finding out that a man they had once loved, but had then vilified and treated hatefully, had sacrificed himself for them at a cost to themselves that was barely conceivable.
Owen himself was only dealing with it by pushing it away from the forefront of his mind. He had Ianto to help, that was his focus.
"You need to go home to Ellie."
"No, she won't understand," argued Ianto. "How could she?"
"It's better than ending up drunk in a gutter."
"How could he do it Owen? We've seen what the Master can do to him. How could anyone agree to more of that, just to save some people who could only die once! And people who had murdered and betrayed him. The Master was right, we didn't deserve his loyalty."
"God knows I wish he hadn't," agreed Owen, wishing he had an answer for Ianto.
"Oh, so do I," answered Ianto with heartfelt emotion. Emotionally wrung out, Ianto allowed Owen to shepherd him out of the pub and back to his flat.
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Eluned Evans, Ellie to her friends, was a hairdresser at a unisex salon near the bay. Ianto Jones, a stickler for neatness, was one of her regulars there. He was an enigmatic man. There seemed to be a deep sadness in him. He had been coming for a year before he starting unbending enough to respond to her flirtatious banter. But after another six months she had dared to ask him out and he had accepted. Their romance blossomed. Ellie and Ianto had moved in together two years after they had first met, six months after they started going out, though Ellie had not sold her own flat. Ellie had met Ianto's work colleagues, although she knew very little about what they actually did. Something hush hush that often required long, and strange working hours, and frequently led to injury, though fortunately this had only been minor.
It had been nearly four months since Ellie had moved in with Ianto, and she was still getting used to the unpredictable hours that he worked. He officially worked the night shift once a week, but, in reality, he could be out until the middle of the night, with no notice, several times a week. She had given up waiting up for him soon after they moved in together, as it could be dawn before he returned.
On this occasion Ianto had arrived home at midnight, escorted by Owen, who had left after seeing him safely home. He was fairly drunk and in a strangely emotional mood. She had never seen him like this. He could not stop pacing, and was trying, incoherently, to explain to her what was wrong.
Ellie had managed to glean from his, less than succinct, explanation, that Ianto's ex-lover, who had been sent to prison for multiple murders, which he did not deny committing, was actually innocent. Why that was making Ianto act as if he had personally crucified the guy, she could not fathom. She was also shocked that his ex was (a) a man and (b) a convicted murderer. She wasn't sure how she felt about either of those facts. Ellie was realising just how reticent with his past Ianto had been. He had never even mentioned this Jack, before.
She tried to calm him down. "Ianto, love, you're home now. Have a sit down, and a drink, and calm down. You can't blame yourself for whatever crimes your ex committed."
"You don't get it," Ianto hissed, "he sacrificed himself for me, and I let him be locked up for murders that he was forced to commit."
Ianto's manic attitude was contagious, and Ellie snapped back at him sarcastically without thinking. "Oh don't be so melodramatic, what did he do, take points on his license for you?"
Ianto was incensed by her words. He forgot that she had no way of knowing about the nine months that never was, or what Jack had done for him. Nor any clue about how much he had once felt about him. Advancing on her threateningly, he yelled "Don't you dare make light of this. Get out! Get out of my flat."
Fearing that Ianto was actually going to hit her, Ellie grabbed her bag and ran out of the flat in tears, heading for her own flat a few miles away.
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Ianto trembled as he stood in his bathroom. He knew he had been totally unfair, and he had not intended to be cruel to Ellie, but her words had been so dismissive of Jack that they had ignited his anger. He knew that that anger was really directed at himself. He had betrayed Jack utterly, while Jack had given everything he had to protect him and the others. Jack had paid for their safety with blood, pain and degradation. And they had repaid him with hate and abuse.
How had he managed to keep up the pretense in front of them for so many months? And why the hell hadn't he pulled out of the deal with the Master, in the face of their complete rejection? As he brooded, Ianto removed his shirt and stood in front of the mirror. As he looked in the mirror he ran his finger along his flesh, following paths that he had seen drawn on Jack's body in blood. As he traced lines across his chest and along his arms, he started to dig his nails in, leaving faint marks behind. It wasn't enough. Yanking open the bathroom cabinet he pulled out a razor blade. Lightly at first, he ran it over the path he had traced with his nails, moving it from one hand to the other to reach them. Then he started to push slightly harder, a thin line of blood marked out the new path. It still wasn't enough. He needed to feel a tiny fraction of what Jack had felt every day. Holding the blade in his right hand he slashed the outside of his left arm from shoulder to elbow. He clutched the sink and as the blood ran down his arm he lowered his head and sobbed.
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Tosh and Gwen had seen Ianto run out of the Hub, looking like the devil was after him. He was followed by Owen, who chased him out of the Hub.
"You two man the Hub, OK?" Owen called over his shoulder as he ran out.
They nodded, but Owen had already gone.
"What the hell was that all about?" Gwen exclaimed.
"I don't know," commented Tosh, "but they were watching the DVDs, so I'd bet that it has something to do with Jack."
They both eyed the boardroom. Then Gwen said, "Come on Tosh, we need to know what's going on."
Entering the boardroom, they saw that the DVD player was on pause. The logo was travelling round the screen. Pressing play twice started the DVD again. On the screen Jack was hanging dead in his chains, with a gunshot wound to his head.
"Well," said Gwen, "that doesn't look as bad as most of what we've seen. There must be more to it. Let's rewind." She rewound fast, past the point at which the Master entered the room, before stopping it. Seeing it backwards, there didn't seem to be anything traumatic going on.
"They were talking," Tosh pointed out. "We should listen to the whole conversation."
"Yes", agreed Gwen. "I'll go from where the Master walked in." And she pressed play.