- 7 -
Jack, Ianto, Gwen and I stood there stunned, not quite believing that both Owen and Toshiko were gone. Jack was the first to pull himself together.
"You need to get back to work," he told the others. "Cardiff's still dealing with the biggest terrorist attack in its history. We can mourn our friends later."
Gwen and Ianto nodded and did as he asked, leaving him with Toshiko's body. He pulled out one of the autopsy room's drawers and gently placed Toshiko in it. Once closed, this would transport her to the cryochamber where the bodies of all former Torchwood agents were stored.
As he closed the drawer, so I felt a tingling run all through my body. I staggered backwards my hand finding the autopsy table... AND GRIPPING IT! I was finally solid once more... minutes after Toshiko had died. I knew the universe could be perverse, but this seemed particularly cruel. Jack turned, and seeing me pulled out his revolver.
"YOU!" he said. I held up my hands.
"Lady Mary Fortis reporting," I said, "Torchwood authorisation 31313."
"What?!"
"We got off on the wrong foot last time, and instead of sending me into the sun you only succeeded in turning me into a phantom. I've been here ever since, but thanks to Toshiko I'm now back in phase with the world and solid once more."
"Toshiko? What are you talking about?"
"You gave her permission to build the device that rescued me but thanks to your memory being tampered with you've forgotten doing so."
"How do I know you're telling the truth?"
"If you let me, I can unlock your memories - even the ones you yourself retconned away. Toshiko told me it was impossible to read your mind, so you'd have to let me in. We'd need the pendants - each of us wearing one."
"Tosh destroyed the one you gave her..."
"I know. There's a box under this table containing four more."
"Four more? How..."
"Something else you've forgotten. Shall we...?"
Jack studied my face for a moment then nodded, lowering his revolver.
"So you're really Lady Mary?"
"I really am, and I'll answer all your questions about my days running Torchwood Three after we do this."
I retrieved the box, gave Jack a pendant, then donned another.
"Give me your hand," I said. "Physical contact helps a memory reboot."
He took my hand, opened his mind to me, and I unlocked all the memories I said I would as well as giving him a couple of my own that he needed to see. For a moment Jack looked stunned, then his face became grim.
"Adam," he said. "We have to stop Adam."
- 8 -
Fortunately we didn't encounter Gwen or Ianto on our way out and so avoided a lot of time consuming questions - Jack could fill them in about me later. I was ravenous so I grabbed someone's salt beef sandwich from the fridge, wolfing it down as we went. Once we were in the Torchwood SUV there was something I had to know.
"The man who killed Toshiko..."
"Dealt with," said Jack. "Now tell me what you know about Adam."
"Just as I'm an alien who became human, so Adam Smith is a human who became an alien. I had humanity thrust upon me, for which I'm now profoundly grateful, whereas he chose to become alien. He was one of my original team at Torchwood Cardiff, as it was then called, but I had no idea when I recruited him that he was a psychopath and an admirer of Jack the Ripper, whose exploits two years previous he had followed avidly. Those killings he made Ianto think he'd committed were Adam's memories of his own crimes, tweaked slightly to seem like they'd happened now rather than in 1890. By the time I discovered what he'd done and confronted him, Adam had absorbed an alien device that gave him the power to do the things he can. It had also changed him on a fundamental level, something he had known would happen and which he embraced. I managed to cast him into the void - how isn't important right now - and that's where he stayed for more than a century. I thought he had died there; I hoped he had died there."
Jack drove us to Lisvane and to St. Anselm's House. I used the SUV's onboard systems, the systems that were usually Toshiko's responsibility, to scan for alarms or CCTV. There were none.
"Typical arrogance," I said. "He's so secure in his power that he assumes he doesn't need them, and he may be right."
"How so?"
"Let him touch you and he's got you. Chances are that each of those innocent young women in his thrall would hurl themselves at you to protect him with no thought for their own safety. They'd fight you to the death."
"So what do you propose?"
"That I go in alone. I have a way to trick him that you don't."
So it was that after scaling the wall and quietly picking the back door lock I let myself into the house. Over my long life I've learned many skills, including the ability of a ninja not to be seen by anyone. I needed to catch Adam alone, and was able to do so when he took a bathroom break. I got there before him so that when he entered I was ready. Locking the door he turned and was startled to see me. Then his face broke into a grin.
"I told you you'd come grovelling to me eventually," he said, "but couldn't you wait until after I've taken a crap?"
"Toshiko's dead," I said.
"That's too bad," he said, his grin widening.
"If not for you we'd have shared her last months together, but you took that from me. You tore my heart out, Adam, so now I'm going to tear yours out."
"Is that a threat?" he laughed. "My, you really have lost it, Lady Mary."
"It's just Mary now," I replied, rapping on the side of the bath with my fist."
The sound it made was his death knell.
"Y..you're solid now," he said, fear in his eyes. "How did y..."
I closed the distance between us before he could react, plunging my hand into his chest, and ripping out his heart.
"Told you," I said, my voice devoid of pity, as the light in his eyes faded and his body slid to the floor. He would not be returning again.
I dropped his heart, washed the blood from my hand and left the bathroom. Outside, his harem were milling around, confused expressions on their faces.
"Where are we?" one of them asked me. "How did we get here."
I tapped my earpiece.
"You need to get in here now, Jack," I said, "and we're going to need lots of retcon."
- 9 -
Toshiko's funeral was small and dignified. I watched from afar and after everyone had gone, I went down to the grave and laid my flowers on it, gently running my fingers over the words engraved on the headstone.
TOSHIKO SATO
Beloved Daughter
1975 - 2008
"I thought I saw you behind that tree," came a familiar voice.
"Hello, Jack," I said, before turning to face him.
"These belong to you," he said, handing me my photo album and the box of telepathic pendants. "I had Ianto scan all the photos for our files, during which he discovered this one concealed under another."
He took it from his pocket and gave it to me. It showed me standing in front of the TARDIS.
"Care to explain?"
"Not really, no. What do you want, Jack?"
"To offer you a job. With our ranks so depleted Torchwood could really use your experience and abilities."
"Not interested. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, as they say. I work best alone, and dangerous Arcateenian criminals are still being dumped here. Though thanks to you I might be getting other visitors soon."
"What do you mean?"
"I'd been forgotten, like Philoctetes on Lemnos, but now that you've sent back the transporter that brought me here I'm going to be remembered. I have a feeling that's not going to work out well."
"Sorry. Guess I really did screw things up for you."
"Out of respect for Toshiko's memory I will help you out occasionally, if you really need me to. Oh, and since it holds so many happy memories I'm buying Toshiko's flat."
"Fine by me since it puts you only a couple of minutes walk from the Hub, but can you afford it? I don't want to stiff her family on price."
"Easily. I still have the Fortis fortune so I'm very wealthy. I haven't actually needed to work in more than a century, but I like to keep busy."
"But your flat on Crwys Road..."
"Is tiny, I know. I've lived in many grand homes over the decades, including mansions, but having been raised in a monastic-type cell I feel most comfortable in smaller places. Then there's Cardiff. It might be my home through necessity but it's also where I'd choose to live. It's a beautiful city, I like its people, and I love their dry sense of humour. I've even developed an appreciation of rugby."
"Now that we have security footage of you taken at the Hub, Ianto was able to run a facial recognition search against all photographic records, giving us some idea of your past. So do I call you Lady Mary, Mary Wozniak, Mary Wynter, Mary Milenski, Mary Kaminski, or Mary Novak?"
"Call me by my married name, Mary Sato-Novak. And now if you don't mind, Jack, I'd like to be alone."
"Of course."
When he'd gone I placed my hand on Toshiko's grave.
"Goodbye, my love," I said, my eyes brimming with tears. "You will live in my heart forever."
*******
The End
********
