Torchwood: Divergence Book Four: Hatchweliad Chapter 2

When they hadn't been able to raise either Jack or Gwen on the comms for the big Rift alert at the old fish hatchery, the Boardroom's phone wouldn't connect, and the CCTV had been shut down from within the room, Ianto had gone to interrupt their "word in private". But just as he'd raised his hand to knock on the apparently locked door, he'd heard what was being said on the other side of the portal.

" If they'd both stayed in the Dark when they died… maybe. But that's not reality, that self-destructive fantasy. Focus on the here and now, Gwen. Leave. It. Alone." Jack had insisted.

"I swore I'd never betray Rhys again the way I did with Owen," Cooper had countered. "Not after we were married, not with the baby. But for even one night with you, Jack, I would. Please…"

" No," Harkness had interrupted, but Ianto had already been backing away from the door.

He'd trusted his friends, still trusted his partner… but apparently Gwen was willing to turn on him after all. And it hurt. So, he'd decided to take the alert alone and give the two the chance to either prove worthy of his trust, or betray him utterly. If the mission happened to go wrong, well all the better for Gwen, yeah? He'd taken the emergency weapon from by the office and the SUV, having figured that anything the handgun couldn't stop he could use his Scieron weapons on. And a little close fighting had been very appealing in that moment, which was why he hadn't bothered with his jacket or coat. Switching his mobile to voice mail, turning off his Bluetooth and putting both in the tray at the front of the SUV's centre console had meant he was on his own. Whatever was waiting, he'd have to face it like a real Scieron Guardian and either prove he'd been worth the trouble of resurrecting, or show his Shadows and Jack that the whole thing had been a mistake from the beginning.

The young Welshman had seen smoke in the pre-twilight air as he'd approached the hatchery, encouraging him to leave the vehicle just inside the high chain-link fence's broken gates and well away from the buildings. Then he'd moved in on foot with a hand torch to find whatever the Rift had spat out. The hatchery had already had one entire wall burning hot and bright when he'd entered, so it had been easy to spot the hulking, half-armoured form of an Arcturian Death Hound trying to claw its way into the steel walled office area. He'd sat his torch out of the way, emptied the Glock into the beast's back legs and tail to draw its attention, then put the gun in the back waistband of his trousers and summoned a broadsword to engage the monstrosity head on.

The fire had spread as he'd fought the giant canine, and he'd used it to his advantage, had eventually forced the creature close to the flames so the armour it wore had started to heat up. The animal had howled, shaken vigorously in pain as the smell of scorched fur had mingled with the acrid smoke filling the air. That distraction had cost it the use of two legs on one side with substantial damage to the third, and it had tumbled into the flames with a horrible piercing wail. Appalled, Ianto had braved the growing fire to get in close to the writhing Hound, not wanting it to suffer regardless of its vicious nature. He'd shoved his sword up under its jaw and sliced sideways to compromise its trachea and sever its brainstem, quickly putting it out of its misery. He'd staggered away with several burns to go with the cracked ribs and other minor injuries he'd sustained in the fight, but otherwise intact. However, he'd then heard the office door bang open unexpectedly, had whirled to find a terrified and choking security guard pointing a .38 at him from about thirty feet away.

He'd banished his weapon and taken a worried step toward the man, opened his mouth to tell the idiot to get out before the still spreading fire hit a second nearby tank of long fermented waste and possibly exploded. But the man had screamed and pulled the trigger… over and over until the gun had clicked on empty.

The first round had hit Ianto in the lower left abdomen and he'd cried out in surprise and pain, staggering back from the impact. The second had grazed the side of his head above his right ear, the third had struck him high in the right thigh. The gunman had taken a couple of jerky steps closer at that point, so the fourth shot had shattered his right knee and sent him crashing to the ground as the fifth and sixth rounds had ploughed into the right side of his chest and the hollow of his left shoulder. Then the guard had run back into the office and slammed the door.

So, the young Guardian was currently gouting blood on the hot concrete floor, struggling to breathe, and trying to figure out how to escape the still spreading flames. In this state he couldn't really help the moron who'd shot him, and that bothered him because he knew the man was likely going to die. Stubbornly refusing to fail, he dragged himself over to one of the gantry supports, strangled a cry as the scorching metal burned his hands when he grabbed it. Nonetheless, he used it to drag himself to his feet, summoned a heavy lance to use as a crutch, gritted his teeth and hobbled from fixture to fixture until he hit the ever-heating walls of the office cubicle. He left skin on the hot handle of the door, nearly jerked the panel off its hinges in his pain racked panic to get to the guard before it was too late. The man looked ready to faint when he saw the bloodied Welshman in the doorway, but sprang into action the instant the twenty-six-year-old spoke.

"Get! Out!" Ianto shouted hoarsely, glad the guard didn't hesitate, but ran screaming past him and on toward the nearest exit.

An exit that was covered by fire seconds after the man bolted through it. There was now only one door out of the hatchery that the flames hadn't reached yet, and the rapidly weakening Changeling started to struggle toward it. But between the heavy smoke and a hole blown in his lung by the guard's pistol, it soon became so hard to breathe that he collapsed, the lance he'd summoned disappearing with an angry hiss as he simply lay where he'd fallen for a moment, gagging for air. Suddenly a column of red light shot up from the hot concrete a few feet in front of him and he heard a whisper in his mind.

*Follow…*

The light disappeared, leaving a small shape behind that came to urge him forward, a trickle of much needed strength passing from it to him as it nudged his shoulder. Ianto gritted his teeth and started to crawl, trusting the strangely welcome guide his Shadows had sent for him and hoping he could get to safety before the whole place went up in flames.

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AN: So, Gwen has already caused trouble with her selfish obsession, and Ianto is paying the price for it.

Thank you to those reading the story. And thank you to those who have followed, favourited, and reviewed. NM