TW: Ghost Story (PG-13) 6/18
Title: Ghost Story 6/18
Author:
mad_maudlin
Rating: PG-13
Pairing and Characters: Jack/Ianto, The Doctor, Torchwood, the other Torchwood, OCs, A THOUSAND ELEPHANTS, et cetera.
Length: 70,000
Spoilers: Oh, let's say the whole Rusty era of DW+TW, just to be safe.
Ghost Story
by Mad Maudlin
6. on the stroke of midnight pass
Jack looked at the Daleks, hundreds of the damn things, thousands spread out around their disgusting Emperor-human Daleks, or post-human, or maybe somewhere deep down inside a little bit human still; but Daleks, the bane that had harried his own time, all times, before disappearing into the darks of those legends that he used to pass the time with. Another mystery solved; too bad nobody at the Agency was likely to take his calls about this little revelation.
The Daleks had invaded entire galaxies, exterminated planets, brought hundreds of fleets to their knees, and now they had an army that had to number in the millions. Jack had a police box, the Doctor, and a very compact laser. And just case the situation was looking a little too positive...
"WORSHIP HIM!" The atonal, metallic rasp filled the air at an ear-bleeding volume. "WORSHIP HIM!"
"They're insane," the Doctor said, staring at the Daleks in horror. "Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad--"
-\-\-\-\-\-
I knew these things. I knew these things, before the Doctor ever said a word, before Jack made any connections. Somewhere inside myself, there was a place that remembered a mother and a father and an orange sky, and it remembered the Daleks, and it remembered anger. Anger, and an equal weight of fear.
I had always known there was a reason those parents sent me away, why they never came back for us. Now I had seen exactly what it was.
-\-\-\-\-\-\-
They made their plans and organized their people, and the station staff went off to prepare. Jack hung back in the control room, though, so it would just be him and Rose and the Doctor. "It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye," he said as lightly as he could.
"Don't talk like that," Rose said uneasily. "The Doctor's going to do it, you just watch him."
"Rose." He cupped her face, remembering how she'd waltzed through the Blitz. She was all heart, Rose Tyler, and if he'd had a chance to know her better-but he had work to do, and it was best to get past any potential distractions now, before they actually became distractions. "You are worth fighting for," is all his said, meaning you and him and everything. He kissed her, because it was his last chance, and she looked at him like she might've understood.
He turned to the Doctor, who had paused to watch, and forced himself to meet his eyes. "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor," Jack said awkwardly, and trusted he's would understand what he meant. "I was much better off as a coward." And gave him the same soft kiss, the same goodbye. I will follow you anywhere, he wanted to add, anywhere you send me.
But he had to get his game face on, get focused on the fight to come. No distractions. No regrets. He'd always known he'd go down fighting, and now he had a chance to go down for a worthy cause. They had their jobs and he had his.
"See you in hell," he said brightly, and walked away.
-\-\-\-\-\-
Jack, hello. I know we don't talk much, but this is your better half, Eiron. I have a simple request.
Open your goddamn watch.
You've never done it. You've never tried. I admit I don't even known if it's possible, but if anyone can, it's you. And there's a reason you've held onto it all these years, through wars and time-travel and android fashionistas, a reason that has nothing to do with sentiment or luck. I have been waiting here, hiding in silence, all our life, becoming what I need to be while I watched you play the hero and the villain.
Now it's my turn to act. Now it's my turn to fight.
Just open it. Let me out.
You know, whenever it's convenient for you.
...
Any day now, Jack, seriously.
-\-\-\-\-\-
"You sent her home, didn't you?"
Maybe the Doctor was just distracted by his gizmos, which were now too complex for Jack to quite follow. Maybe that's why he wasn't looking into the screen. "Yeah," he said shortly.
So Rose was gone, safe in her own era, tens of thousands of years away from this battle. Good. "The delta wave," Jack asked, hoping the Doctor would dignify him with a straight answer now that Rose wasn't here to protect. "Is it ever going to be ready?"
"TELL HIM THE TRUTH, DOCTOR." Jack started at the sound of the Emperor's voice, and on the screen the image of the Doctor looked up sharply-but no, it had to be a transmission, there was no way the fleet could've beamed their god straight to Level 500. "THERE IS EVERY POSSIBILITY THE DELTA WAVE WILL BE COMPLETE, BUT NO POSSIBILITY OF REFINING IT. THE DELTA WAVE MUST KILL EVERY LIVING THING IN ITS PATH, WITH NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN HUMAN AND DALEK. ALL THINGS WILL DIE...BY YOUR HAND."
Jack's stomach sank, and he waited for the Doctor to argue, to wave his arms and reveal what trick would save the world. Instead, the Doctor flinched, and Jack's mouth went a little dry. "Doctor, the range of this transmitter covers the entire Earth."
"YOU WOULD DESTROY DALEKS AND HUMANS TOGETHER," the Emperor declared, something like smugness in its harsh, metallic voice. "IF I AM GOD, THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS, THEN WHAT DOES THAT MAKE YOU, DOCTOR?"
"There are colonies out there!" the Doctor snapped, eyes wide. "The human race will survive in some shape or form, but you're the only Daleks in existence! The whole universe is in danger if I let you live!" He suddenly looked at the screen, looked into Jack's eyes, desperate and haunted. "D'you see, Jack? That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing: die as a human or live as a Dalek. What would you do?"
That was a question to be asking Rose, their beautiful barometer of right and wrong. Instead he was asking Jack, the soldier and the criminal, because Rose was two hundred thousand years away. And there were reasons for that, and reasons Jack was still here. Because like the Doctor, Jack knew how to sacrifice, even when it included himself. "You sent her home," he said sharply, meaning so much more than that. "She's safe. Keep working."
-\-\-\-\-\-
Seriously, Jack. Not fooling around here. Let me out.
The Doctor needs our help. No, not your help, my help. You're one more warm body holding the line, and that's all you think you'll ever be, but I can help him, I can do more-two Time Lords have to be better than one, and together we might be able to refine the delta wave and shield the Earth from the blast. Part of the Earth. Something.
This isn't supposed to happen, the Doctor and I both sense it: the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire won't be built on a graveyard. But the timeline is still in flux, and I can change things, do something. For once, I'm the one with the power in my hands, if only I actually had hands.
If you're so eager to destroy yourself, there's a shortcut in your pocket.
Open the fucking watch.
-\-\-\-\-\-\-
"Last man standing...for god's sake, Doctor finish that thing and kill them!"
Were the bullets even slowing them down? He raced down the corridors, all the old habits coming back to him-firing one-handed even though the recoil made his shoulder ache, keeping his eyes on the oncoming enemy, pausing at every turn to make sure they kept their eyestalks on him. Every second they spent focused on him was another second the Doctor had, and this wasn't the first time Jack had been somebody's diversion. This was full-blown battle, with the world narrowed to his targets and his surroundings and his weapon and his heartbeat.
"Doctor, you've got about twenty seconds!"
And so did he.
-\-\-\-\-\-
God, you self-destructive idiot, listen to me! You can save yourself! I can save ourself! Open the watch, and we can regenerate, right? Isn't that how it works? Cheating death?
Jack, let me out!
Please!
-\-\-\-\-\-\-
He came to the gates of Level 500, the last place he could make his stand. The machine gun chose that moment to run dry; even if he'd had another spare magazine, there was no time to reload. He pulled out his sidearm and fired into the three Daleks that had chased him this far, because even if strategy hadn't required him not to go down easy, he did have pride.
The pistol only had a six-round clip, though. Now he was the only thing standing between the Daleks and the Doctor, and the world narrowed to the limits of his vision, to the sound of his beating heart.
At least he would know without a doubt that this had been worth it. Worth every second.
"EXTERMINATE," the lead Dalek declared.
"I kind of figured that," Jack said, and spread his arms wide.
-\-\-\-\-\-
This is death, without background music, without context or drama, stripped to its essentials: there is the body's autonomic symptoms of terror, the pounding heart, the stinging sweat, the trembling of the arm and legs. There is pain beyond all imagining that lights up every nerve. There are final irrational thoughts, mere spasms of neurons, too little and too late.
Death is a terrible, sudden noise, followed by an even more terrible silence.
-\-\-\-\-\-
Everything must come to dust.
All things.
Everything dies.
-\-\-\-\-\-
What are you? asks the voice, as fire fills my senses, blinding light, roaring noise.
I...I'm Eiron.
What are you?
I am a Time Lord. (Though it's hard to say with conviction, lost in a deafening void.)
What are you?
I suppose I'm a ghost. Where-where's Jack?
Jack is here.
But where is he? Am I...I feel alone. (For the first time in nearly thirty-seven standard years, I think I am alone.)
Jack is a form. A pattern in space and time. I can see every atom of his existence. I see you.
Why can't I feel him? Is he dead? (Am I alone?)
Everything dies.
Am I dead? (Or is this the Vortex, this swirling, burning chaos? Are we inside the Time Vortex itself?)
Everything dies.
You're not being terribly helpful about this.
I am the Bad Wolf.
What does that even mean?
I bring life.
(There is a sudden, terrible sound, like drums-it spears through my center, transfixing me, and it is fire-)
-\-\-\-\-\-
Jack woke up gasping, woke up trembling, woke up at all.
What the hell--?
He clambered unsteadily to his feet and looked around, but this was the same corridor, the same space station. Just a distinct lack of Daleks. Had they spared him, for some reason, one more act of insanity? Were they already in the control room, or had the delta wave already come and gone? But then why was Jack still breathing?
The corridor was coated in dust...fine, gray dust and slipped easily through his fingers. Ashes to ashes. Except he'd been alone up here. Alone but for the Daleks...
Up ahead, he heard a distinctive breathy grind.
Jack ran flat-out up the last set of stairs and along a short corridor, and as his reward he was just in time to see the TARDIS fade away. No sign of the Doctor; just more dust, and a delta wave device that had never been activated. He quickly looked at one of the sensor screens, but it didn't register any other life signs in the Gamestation; Earth was safe, but Jack was alone.
"Oh, no, you don't," he snarled as the last light faded, and he opened up his vortex manipulator. The battery was nearly dead-no point in keeping it fully charged, not when he had TARDIS travel--but there ought to be enough juice for this, just enough for one last little trip--
Chapter One
Chapter Five
Chapter Seven
Author:
mad_maudlin
Rating: PG-13
Pairing and Characters: Jack/Ianto, The Doctor, Torchwood, the other Torchwood, OCs, A THOUSAND ELEPHANTS, et cetera.
Length: 70,000
Spoilers: Oh, let's say the whole Rusty era of DW+TW, just to be safe.
Ghost Story
by Mad Maudlin
6. on the stroke of midnight pass
Jack looked at the Daleks, hundreds of the damn things, thousands spread out around their disgusting Emperor-human Daleks, or post-human, or maybe somewhere deep down inside a little bit human still; but Daleks, the bane that had harried his own time, all times, before disappearing into the darks of those legends that he used to pass the time with. Another mystery solved; too bad nobody at the Agency was likely to take his calls about this little revelation.
The Daleks had invaded entire galaxies, exterminated planets, brought hundreds of fleets to their knees, and now they had an army that had to number in the millions. Jack had a police box, the Doctor, and a very compact laser. And just case the situation was looking a little too positive...
"WORSHIP HIM!" The atonal, metallic rasp filled the air at an ear-bleeding volume. "WORSHIP HIM!"
"They're insane," the Doctor said, staring at the Daleks in horror. "Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad--"
-\-\-\-\-\-
I knew these things. I knew these things, before the Doctor ever said a word, before Jack made any connections. Somewhere inside myself, there was a place that remembered a mother and a father and an orange sky, and it remembered the Daleks, and it remembered anger. Anger, and an equal weight of fear.
I had always known there was a reason those parents sent me away, why they never came back for us. Now I had seen exactly what it was.
-\-\-\-\-\-\-
They made their plans and organized their people, and the station staff went off to prepare. Jack hung back in the control room, though, so it would just be him and Rose and the Doctor. "It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye," he said as lightly as he could.
"Don't talk like that," Rose said uneasily. "The Doctor's going to do it, you just watch him."
"Rose." He cupped her face, remembering how she'd waltzed through the Blitz. She was all heart, Rose Tyler, and if he'd had a chance to know her better-but he had work to do, and it was best to get past any potential distractions now, before they actually became distractions. "You are worth fighting for," is all his said, meaning you and him and everything. He kissed her, because it was his last chance, and she looked at him like she might've understood.
He turned to the Doctor, who had paused to watch, and forced himself to meet his eyes. "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor," Jack said awkwardly, and trusted he's would understand what he meant. "I was much better off as a coward." And gave him the same soft kiss, the same goodbye. I will follow you anywhere, he wanted to add, anywhere you send me.
But he had to get his game face on, get focused on the fight to come. No distractions. No regrets. He'd always known he'd go down fighting, and now he had a chance to go down for a worthy cause. They had their jobs and he had his.
"See you in hell," he said brightly, and walked away.
-\-\-\-\-\-
Jack, hello. I know we don't talk much, but this is your better half, Eiron. I have a simple request.
Open your goddamn watch.
You've never done it. You've never tried. I admit I don't even known if it's possible, but if anyone can, it's you. And there's a reason you've held onto it all these years, through wars and time-travel and android fashionistas, a reason that has nothing to do with sentiment or luck. I have been waiting here, hiding in silence, all our life, becoming what I need to be while I watched you play the hero and the villain.
Now it's my turn to act. Now it's my turn to fight.
Just open it. Let me out.
You know, whenever it's convenient for you.
...
Any day now, Jack, seriously.
-\-\-\-\-\-
"You sent her home, didn't you?"
Maybe the Doctor was just distracted by his gizmos, which were now too complex for Jack to quite follow. Maybe that's why he wasn't looking into the screen. "Yeah," he said shortly.
So Rose was gone, safe in her own era, tens of thousands of years away from this battle. Good. "The delta wave," Jack asked, hoping the Doctor would dignify him with a straight answer now that Rose wasn't here to protect. "Is it ever going to be ready?"
"TELL HIM THE TRUTH, DOCTOR." Jack started at the sound of the Emperor's voice, and on the screen the image of the Doctor looked up sharply-but no, it had to be a transmission, there was no way the fleet could've beamed their god straight to Level 500. "THERE IS EVERY POSSIBILITY THE DELTA WAVE WILL BE COMPLETE, BUT NO POSSIBILITY OF REFINING IT. THE DELTA WAVE MUST KILL EVERY LIVING THING IN ITS PATH, WITH NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN HUMAN AND DALEK. ALL THINGS WILL DIE...BY YOUR HAND."
Jack's stomach sank, and he waited for the Doctor to argue, to wave his arms and reveal what trick would save the world. Instead, the Doctor flinched, and Jack's mouth went a little dry. "Doctor, the range of this transmitter covers the entire Earth."
"YOU WOULD DESTROY DALEKS AND HUMANS TOGETHER," the Emperor declared, something like smugness in its harsh, metallic voice. "IF I AM GOD, THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS, THEN WHAT DOES THAT MAKE YOU, DOCTOR?"
"There are colonies out there!" the Doctor snapped, eyes wide. "The human race will survive in some shape or form, but you're the only Daleks in existence! The whole universe is in danger if I let you live!" He suddenly looked at the screen, looked into Jack's eyes, desperate and haunted. "D'you see, Jack? That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing: die as a human or live as a Dalek. What would you do?"
That was a question to be asking Rose, their beautiful barometer of right and wrong. Instead he was asking Jack, the soldier and the criminal, because Rose was two hundred thousand years away. And there were reasons for that, and reasons Jack was still here. Because like the Doctor, Jack knew how to sacrifice, even when it included himself. "You sent her home," he said sharply, meaning so much more than that. "She's safe. Keep working."
-\-\-\-\-\-
Seriously, Jack. Not fooling around here. Let me out.
The Doctor needs our help. No, not your help, my help. You're one more warm body holding the line, and that's all you think you'll ever be, but I can help him, I can do more-two Time Lords have to be better than one, and together we might be able to refine the delta wave and shield the Earth from the blast. Part of the Earth. Something.
This isn't supposed to happen, the Doctor and I both sense it: the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire won't be built on a graveyard. But the timeline is still in flux, and I can change things, do something. For once, I'm the one with the power in my hands, if only I actually had hands.
If you're so eager to destroy yourself, there's a shortcut in your pocket.
Open the fucking watch.
-\-\-\-\-\-\-
"Last man standing...for god's sake, Doctor finish that thing and kill them!"
Were the bullets even slowing them down? He raced down the corridors, all the old habits coming back to him-firing one-handed even though the recoil made his shoulder ache, keeping his eyes on the oncoming enemy, pausing at every turn to make sure they kept their eyestalks on him. Every second they spent focused on him was another second the Doctor had, and this wasn't the first time Jack had been somebody's diversion. This was full-blown battle, with the world narrowed to his targets and his surroundings and his weapon and his heartbeat.
"Doctor, you've got about twenty seconds!"
And so did he.
-\-\-\-\-\-
God, you self-destructive idiot, listen to me! You can save yourself! I can save ourself! Open the watch, and we can regenerate, right? Isn't that how it works? Cheating death?
Jack, let me out!
Please!
-\-\-\-\-\-\-
He came to the gates of Level 500, the last place he could make his stand. The machine gun chose that moment to run dry; even if he'd had another spare magazine, there was no time to reload. He pulled out his sidearm and fired into the three Daleks that had chased him this far, because even if strategy hadn't required him not to go down easy, he did have pride.
The pistol only had a six-round clip, though. Now he was the only thing standing between the Daleks and the Doctor, and the world narrowed to the limits of his vision, to the sound of his beating heart.
At least he would know without a doubt that this had been worth it. Worth every second.
"EXTERMINATE," the lead Dalek declared.
"I kind of figured that," Jack said, and spread his arms wide.
-\-\-\-\-\-
This is death, without background music, without context or drama, stripped to its essentials: there is the body's autonomic symptoms of terror, the pounding heart, the stinging sweat, the trembling of the arm and legs. There is pain beyond all imagining that lights up every nerve. There are final irrational thoughts, mere spasms of neurons, too little and too late.
Death is a terrible, sudden noise, followed by an even more terrible silence.
-\-\-\-\-\-
Everything must come to dust.
All things.
Everything dies.
-\-\-\-\-\-
What are you? asks the voice, as fire fills my senses, blinding light, roaring noise.
I...I'm Eiron.
What are you?
I am a Time Lord. (Though it's hard to say with conviction, lost in a deafening void.)
What are you?
I suppose I'm a ghost. Where-where's Jack?
Jack is here.
But where is he? Am I...I feel alone. (For the first time in nearly thirty-seven standard years, I think I am alone.)
Jack is a form. A pattern in space and time. I can see every atom of his existence. I see you.
Why can't I feel him? Is he dead? (Am I alone?)
Everything dies.
Am I dead? (Or is this the Vortex, this swirling, burning chaos? Are we inside the Time Vortex itself?)
Everything dies.
You're not being terribly helpful about this.
I am the Bad Wolf.
What does that even mean?
I bring life.
(There is a sudden, terrible sound, like drums-it spears through my center, transfixing me, and it is fire-)
-\-\-\-\-\-
Jack woke up gasping, woke up trembling, woke up at all.
What the hell--?
He clambered unsteadily to his feet and looked around, but this was the same corridor, the same space station. Just a distinct lack of Daleks. Had they spared him, for some reason, one more act of insanity? Were they already in the control room, or had the delta wave already come and gone? But then why was Jack still breathing?
The corridor was coated in dust...fine, gray dust and slipped easily through his fingers. Ashes to ashes. Except he'd been alone up here. Alone but for the Daleks...
Up ahead, he heard a distinctive breathy grind.
Jack ran flat-out up the last set of stairs and along a short corridor, and as his reward he was just in time to see the TARDIS fade away. No sign of the Doctor; just more dust, and a delta wave device that had never been activated. He quickly looked at one of the sensor screens, but it didn't register any other life signs in the Gamestation; Earth was safe, but Jack was alone.
"Oh, no, you don't," he snarled as the last light faded, and he opened up his vortex manipulator. The battery was nearly dead-no point in keeping it fully charged, not when he had TARDIS travel--but there ought to be enough juice for this, just enough for one last little trip--
Chapter One
Chapter Five
Chapter Seven