(no subject)
I never posted my last 2 Round 1 WIAD pieces. So here they are! I finished this round of the competition in second place over all.
WEEK 10
Title: Saying Farewell
Rating: G
Characters: Owen, Diane
Authors Note: The theme for this week was "Letters From The Rift".
Dearest Owen,
By the time you wake up and read this, I will be gone. I know that I am taking the coward’s way out, not staying to say good-bye in person, but it’s better this way for the both of us. I don’t think that either one of us handle good-byes very well.
Last night, after you fell asleep, I laid there thinking about everything you said and as scared as you are about what’s going on between us, I am just as scared. This is all new for me. I am so used to being my own woman, going wherever I wanted, whenever, choosing my lovers and partners as the whim took me. But to actually be in love is an all-new feeling.
And it terrifies me.
As selfish as it might sound, I don’t want to lose my freedom. It’s who I am. How do I describe it to you, explain what I mean?
Have you ever watched a flag waving in the wind, Owen? How it struggles to break free, yearning to let the wind that teases it with a taste of flying carry it away, but is anchored in place? If I stay, that's what I will become like. A lonely remnant, tugged by the wind as it calls to me to come fly away, but unable to go because there is something holding me here. And if I let that happen, then I will lose who I am. I need to control my fate and not let myself be at the mercy of love.
So the only choice is for me to leave, before either of us get hurt or grow to resent one another. I do love you, Owen, but this is for the best. I don’t know where I will end up, but I am willing to take that chance and see where the future and destiny takes me.
Don’t fear for me, I am a grown woman and have been taking care of myself for years. And don’t come after me; let this be my good-bye to you. Keep your memories of our time together close to your heart, of the love we felt for each other and don’t hide your heart away. The right love will come along some day and you will miss it if you lock yourself away and don’t let yourself feel anything.
Be happy, my darling, and remember me fondly.
I will never forget you-
Diane
FINAL WEEK
Title: Sometimes They Come Back
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Jack, Ianto, beth
Author Note: Theme was someone's crawling out of a drawer (One of the characters who was canonically drawered) has made their way out. How does the team react? What does the Drawered soul want now that they're out? Spoilers thru 2x02.
In the encompassing darkness, a pale red glow flickered to life. With a rhythm like a beating heart, it pulsed and grew brighter, pushing back the blackness, as her lids slowly slid open to reveal eyes that were little more than sightless glass orbs. Electrical impulses raced along nerve endings, firing up neurons, commanding flesh that was cold and stiff with death to move once more. There was no breath, no thumping heart; just bursts of electromagnetic energy radiating throughout and turning her into an organic machine, commanded by the device buried beneath the skin of her arm. It took control of her limbs and she shifted heavily within the confined space as she twisted to brace her hands upon the door of her resting place. With a surge of unnatural strength, Beth forced it outwards. Hinges and latches protested as metal twisted and contorted, giving way, and the door clattered to the floor with a noise that echoed eerily off the cold white tiles of the empty morgue.
Sliding out slowly, body awkward in its movement, she crawled through the opening and fell to the floor in a heap. The implant reached out, accessing her senses, employing them to gain its bearings as it forced her to her feet. Turning her eyes and ears into biological equivalents of a camera and microphone, it ordered her forward in search of an exit.
Her mission wasn't finished yet.
-------------------------------------------------
Ianto stared blankly into the amber contents of the glass he gripped tensely before lifting his eyes to look at Jack with some concern. The older man sat silently, staring out the office window into the empty hub with a dark expression on his face. Lifting the glass to his lips, Ianto emptied it in one draw, the whiskey burning a trail down his throat that made him cough slightly.
The noise drew Jack's attention. "You alright?"
"I'm fine, Sir." Ianto cleared his throat, chasing away some of the fiery sensation before he set his glass on the desk and continued hesitantly. "More importantly, how are you?"
Jack's only response was a slight tightening of both the expression on his face and the grip on his own glass. He remained silent as Ianto watched him closely.
Ianto's voice was quiet in the silence of the office. "We had to do it, Jack, we didn't have a choice. She was threatening Gwen."
"But was she really?" Jack sat forward in his chair, forearms resting on his knees, his face twisted with indecisive contemplation. "You heard what Gwen said, that Beth…."
Ianto made an impatient noise, cutting Jack off and causing the other man to look up at him questioningly. "That Beth wanted us to shoot her, that it was her choice because she was sure she would be a threat if we allowed her to live? If we had taken a chance on that being the case, Jack, we could have been wrong and Gwen could have died."
Jack sighed wearily, raking a hand through his hair. "I know, Ianto, but we could have tried to find a way to save Beth if she would have given us a chance. I don't know if we would have, but we could have…"
All the lights in hub flickered for a few seconds before an alarm sounded from the computers. Jack turned to the computer on his desk quickly, pulling up the hub monitoring system and checking to see what was the source of the alarm. "That's strange," he muttered under his breath, typing a few commands out on the keyboard to pull up further read-outs.
"What is it?" Ianto stood and came around the desk to stand behind Jack's chair.
"Sensors picked up a major energy surge in the morgue, but it's not from any of our systems. That can't be….unless…" Jack's voice trailed off as hurriedly pulled up the CCTV for the morgue on his screen. "Shit."
They both stared at the screen showing them one of drawer door's laying twisted and broken on the floor. The drawer itself was empty, its occupant nowhere in sight.
"That can't be possible," Ianto whispered in disbelief. "She was dead."
"Guess Beth wasn't as dead as we thought she was." Jack surged to his feet just as the entire hub plunged into darkness for a few moments. The emergency systems clicked into action as the sound of locks activating echoed around the hub. Jack looked at Ianto in the eerie bluish half-light that bathed the hub. "We've gone into lockdown. Come on."
Drawing his revolver from its holster, he moved cautiously towards the office doorway, motioning for Ianto to follow him as the younger man drew his own gun. He paused on the threshold as his eyes scanned the main room, seeking to penetrate the shadows for any threat. The sound of heavy footsteps on the metal grating of the stairs leading up from morgue captured his attention and he stepped further out, gun coming up at the ready. Ianto followed his lead, coming to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. They waited tensely as the footsteps came closer, and Jack made a small sound of dismay as Beth shambled into view.
"Stop right there," he ordered, his weapon trained on her. His eyes trained on the glowing implant active on her arm as she paused in her forward movement. "Damn it, I thought that was deactivated."
As Beth began to move towards them again, Ianto noticed something strange. "Jack, is she alive? Look at her. Something's not right."
"You mean something other than the fact that she's up and walking when she's supposed to be dead?" They fell back a few steps as Beth advanced slowly and Jack looked at her closely as she passed under one of the emergency lights. "You're right. Look at her eyes, the lights are on but no one's home."
"If she's not alive, then how the hell is she up and moving around?"
Jack jerked his head in the direction of the glowing lights under her skin. "My guess is that the implant to blame. It must be running off the power source in her body, controlling her." He lowered his gun cautiously as she came closer. "Beth, if you can hear me, we can help you if you let us."
She paused, as if noticing their presence for the first time, silently turning empty eyes towards them. Jack edged slowly towards her, Ianto close behind, reaching out to take her arm. Quicker than they could react, Beth's arm morphed into a bladed weapon once more and she slashed out at them.
Jack reacted quickly, forcing Ianto back and away from the danger, as her attack cut a track across his chest. "Well, we can add regeneration to her bag of tricks," he gasped painfully, stumbling as she lashed out again, catching him across the stomach.
Ianto brought his gun up and, taking careful aim, fired several rounds. Her body jerked with the impact of the bullets, halting her attack for a moment but doing little else. He hurried forward towards Jack, only to fall back once more as Beth recovered, her focus shifting to him as she lashed out towards him.
"Stay back, Ianto!" Jack ordered. He leaned heavily on the walkway railing, bleeding profusely, the crimson stain spreading quickly across his shirt. "We need to separate the implant from her body. It may be the only way. If it's controlling her, removing it might stop her." He pulled himself unsteadily along the railing as Beth struck again, her bladed arm piercing his body, and he fell to the ground.
Ianto hesitated for a moment, before turning and heading for the armory. He praised the foresight they'd had after the last time the hub had gone into lockdown to change the locking mechanism on the armory door. He punched in the emergency code, and the doors slid open to admit him, eyes roving the array of weapons covering the walls before spotting just what he needed. Tossing his gun aside, he grasped the strange looking axe and pulled it from the wall. He caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye and whirling back around, he brought the weapon up defensively. Metal against metal sparked and screeched loudly in the silence of the room. Shifting his grip on the handle, he swung back at Beth, seeking out an opening to bring things to an end. Blade met blade over and over again in a deadly dance as he forced her back out of the armory. He faltered for a moment, sweating hands slipping on the axe handle as he sought to tighten his grip.
Her next swing drove him to his knees as he brought the weapon up defensively as the last moment, and the force knocked it loose from his hands to clatter to the floor. He groped for it frantically as she raised her arm to attack again.
She was knocked to the side at the last moment as Jack appeared suddenly, lunging at her and taking her down to the ground. They struggled on the ground as he sought to pin her down, his strength ebbing away fast from the blood loss, and Ianto knew that Jack was fading fast.
"Ianto!" he gasped weakly as he forced her arm to the ground. "Do it now. I can't hold her much longer."
Ianto's scrabbling fingers finally found the end of the handle. He lurched to his feet and swung it above his head. The blade whistled through the air as he brought it down as hard as he could, the sound of the sharp edge impacting flesh and shattering bone sickening him for a moment. He watched as Jack slumped heavily over Beth's body as it jerked violently a few times before stilling, and the implant buried in the severed arm pulsed furiously for a few moments before going dark.
Breathing heavily, Ianto fell to his knees at the side of the fallen bodies and reached out to roll Jack carefully off of Beth. Jack's eyes stared emptily at the ceiling and Ianto sighed heavily as he shifted over to sit at the other man's side, taking Jack's cold hand in his own warm one. He rested there numbly as his eyes wandered back out to the main hub, taking in the splashes of blood covering the walkway and railings, automatically listing what would need to be done to clean up without a conscious thought. Looking at Jack and then to Beth, he felt a tightness in his throat as his mind drifted back to the day Lisa died. Her death still haunted him, despite his declarations that he eventually understood why Jack had done what he had. But in all honesty, he hadn't understood, a part of him argued that they could have done more. But it was in this moment that he finally truly knew why Jack had done it. They couldn't have saved Lisa then, and they couldn't have saved Beth now. Her humanity had been slowly fading away, and when it was gone, she would have been a danger to all of them, just like Lisa had been. He had simply been too stubborn and blinded by love at the time to see. But Jack had seen the truth, and as he sat there clutching the man's hand, Ianto let the tears come as he finally felt like he understood the man he had come to love and admire.
WEEK 10
Title: Saying Farewell
Rating: G
Characters: Owen, Diane
Authors Note: The theme for this week was "Letters From The Rift".
Dearest Owen,
By the time you wake up and read this, I will be gone. I know that I am taking the coward’s way out, not staying to say good-bye in person, but it’s better this way for the both of us. I don’t think that either one of us handle good-byes very well.
Last night, after you fell asleep, I laid there thinking about everything you said and as scared as you are about what’s going on between us, I am just as scared. This is all new for me. I am so used to being my own woman, going wherever I wanted, whenever, choosing my lovers and partners as the whim took me. But to actually be in love is an all-new feeling.
And it terrifies me.
As selfish as it might sound, I don’t want to lose my freedom. It’s who I am. How do I describe it to you, explain what I mean?
Have you ever watched a flag waving in the wind, Owen? How it struggles to break free, yearning to let the wind that teases it with a taste of flying carry it away, but is anchored in place? If I stay, that's what I will become like. A lonely remnant, tugged by the wind as it calls to me to come fly away, but unable to go because there is something holding me here. And if I let that happen, then I will lose who I am. I need to control my fate and not let myself be at the mercy of love.
So the only choice is for me to leave, before either of us get hurt or grow to resent one another. I do love you, Owen, but this is for the best. I don’t know where I will end up, but I am willing to take that chance and see where the future and destiny takes me.
Don’t fear for me, I am a grown woman and have been taking care of myself for years. And don’t come after me; let this be my good-bye to you. Keep your memories of our time together close to your heart, of the love we felt for each other and don’t hide your heart away. The right love will come along some day and you will miss it if you lock yourself away and don’t let yourself feel anything.
Be happy, my darling, and remember me fondly.
I will never forget you-
Diane
FINAL WEEK
Title: Sometimes They Come Back
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Jack, Ianto, beth
Author Note: Theme was someone's crawling out of a drawer (One of the characters who was canonically drawered) has made their way out. How does the team react? What does the Drawered soul want now that they're out? Spoilers thru 2x02.
In the encompassing darkness, a pale red glow flickered to life. With a rhythm like a beating heart, it pulsed and grew brighter, pushing back the blackness, as her lids slowly slid open to reveal eyes that were little more than sightless glass orbs. Electrical impulses raced along nerve endings, firing up neurons, commanding flesh that was cold and stiff with death to move once more. There was no breath, no thumping heart; just bursts of electromagnetic energy radiating throughout and turning her into an organic machine, commanded by the device buried beneath the skin of her arm. It took control of her limbs and she shifted heavily within the confined space as she twisted to brace her hands upon the door of her resting place. With a surge of unnatural strength, Beth forced it outwards. Hinges and latches protested as metal twisted and contorted, giving way, and the door clattered to the floor with a noise that echoed eerily off the cold white tiles of the empty morgue.
Sliding out slowly, body awkward in its movement, she crawled through the opening and fell to the floor in a heap. The implant reached out, accessing her senses, employing them to gain its bearings as it forced her to her feet. Turning her eyes and ears into biological equivalents of a camera and microphone, it ordered her forward in search of an exit.
Her mission wasn't finished yet.
-------------------------------------------------
Ianto stared blankly into the amber contents of the glass he gripped tensely before lifting his eyes to look at Jack with some concern. The older man sat silently, staring out the office window into the empty hub with a dark expression on his face. Lifting the glass to his lips, Ianto emptied it in one draw, the whiskey burning a trail down his throat that made him cough slightly.
The noise drew Jack's attention. "You alright?"
"I'm fine, Sir." Ianto cleared his throat, chasing away some of the fiery sensation before he set his glass on the desk and continued hesitantly. "More importantly, how are you?"
Jack's only response was a slight tightening of both the expression on his face and the grip on his own glass. He remained silent as Ianto watched him closely.
Ianto's voice was quiet in the silence of the office. "We had to do it, Jack, we didn't have a choice. She was threatening Gwen."
"But was she really?" Jack sat forward in his chair, forearms resting on his knees, his face twisted with indecisive contemplation. "You heard what Gwen said, that Beth…."
Ianto made an impatient noise, cutting Jack off and causing the other man to look up at him questioningly. "That Beth wanted us to shoot her, that it was her choice because she was sure she would be a threat if we allowed her to live? If we had taken a chance on that being the case, Jack, we could have been wrong and Gwen could have died."
Jack sighed wearily, raking a hand through his hair. "I know, Ianto, but we could have tried to find a way to save Beth if she would have given us a chance. I don't know if we would have, but we could have…"
All the lights in hub flickered for a few seconds before an alarm sounded from the computers. Jack turned to the computer on his desk quickly, pulling up the hub monitoring system and checking to see what was the source of the alarm. "That's strange," he muttered under his breath, typing a few commands out on the keyboard to pull up further read-outs.
"What is it?" Ianto stood and came around the desk to stand behind Jack's chair.
"Sensors picked up a major energy surge in the morgue, but it's not from any of our systems. That can't be….unless…" Jack's voice trailed off as hurriedly pulled up the CCTV for the morgue on his screen. "Shit."
They both stared at the screen showing them one of drawer door's laying twisted and broken on the floor. The drawer itself was empty, its occupant nowhere in sight.
"That can't be possible," Ianto whispered in disbelief. "She was dead."
"Guess Beth wasn't as dead as we thought she was." Jack surged to his feet just as the entire hub plunged into darkness for a few moments. The emergency systems clicked into action as the sound of locks activating echoed around the hub. Jack looked at Ianto in the eerie bluish half-light that bathed the hub. "We've gone into lockdown. Come on."
Drawing his revolver from its holster, he moved cautiously towards the office doorway, motioning for Ianto to follow him as the younger man drew his own gun. He paused on the threshold as his eyes scanned the main room, seeking to penetrate the shadows for any threat. The sound of heavy footsteps on the metal grating of the stairs leading up from morgue captured his attention and he stepped further out, gun coming up at the ready. Ianto followed his lead, coming to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. They waited tensely as the footsteps came closer, and Jack made a small sound of dismay as Beth shambled into view.
"Stop right there," he ordered, his weapon trained on her. His eyes trained on the glowing implant active on her arm as she paused in her forward movement. "Damn it, I thought that was deactivated."
As Beth began to move towards them again, Ianto noticed something strange. "Jack, is she alive? Look at her. Something's not right."
"You mean something other than the fact that she's up and walking when she's supposed to be dead?" They fell back a few steps as Beth advanced slowly and Jack looked at her closely as she passed under one of the emergency lights. "You're right. Look at her eyes, the lights are on but no one's home."
"If she's not alive, then how the hell is she up and moving around?"
Jack jerked his head in the direction of the glowing lights under her skin. "My guess is that the implant to blame. It must be running off the power source in her body, controlling her." He lowered his gun cautiously as she came closer. "Beth, if you can hear me, we can help you if you let us."
She paused, as if noticing their presence for the first time, silently turning empty eyes towards them. Jack edged slowly towards her, Ianto close behind, reaching out to take her arm. Quicker than they could react, Beth's arm morphed into a bladed weapon once more and she slashed out at them.
Jack reacted quickly, forcing Ianto back and away from the danger, as her attack cut a track across his chest. "Well, we can add regeneration to her bag of tricks," he gasped painfully, stumbling as she lashed out again, catching him across the stomach.
Ianto brought his gun up and, taking careful aim, fired several rounds. Her body jerked with the impact of the bullets, halting her attack for a moment but doing little else. He hurried forward towards Jack, only to fall back once more as Beth recovered, her focus shifting to him as she lashed out towards him.
"Stay back, Ianto!" Jack ordered. He leaned heavily on the walkway railing, bleeding profusely, the crimson stain spreading quickly across his shirt. "We need to separate the implant from her body. It may be the only way. If it's controlling her, removing it might stop her." He pulled himself unsteadily along the railing as Beth struck again, her bladed arm piercing his body, and he fell to the ground.
Ianto hesitated for a moment, before turning and heading for the armory. He praised the foresight they'd had after the last time the hub had gone into lockdown to change the locking mechanism on the armory door. He punched in the emergency code, and the doors slid open to admit him, eyes roving the array of weapons covering the walls before spotting just what he needed. Tossing his gun aside, he grasped the strange looking axe and pulled it from the wall. He caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye and whirling back around, he brought the weapon up defensively. Metal against metal sparked and screeched loudly in the silence of the room. Shifting his grip on the handle, he swung back at Beth, seeking out an opening to bring things to an end. Blade met blade over and over again in a deadly dance as he forced her back out of the armory. He faltered for a moment, sweating hands slipping on the axe handle as he sought to tighten his grip.
Her next swing drove him to his knees as he brought the weapon up defensively as the last moment, and the force knocked it loose from his hands to clatter to the floor. He groped for it frantically as she raised her arm to attack again.
She was knocked to the side at the last moment as Jack appeared suddenly, lunging at her and taking her down to the ground. They struggled on the ground as he sought to pin her down, his strength ebbing away fast from the blood loss, and Ianto knew that Jack was fading fast.
"Ianto!" he gasped weakly as he forced her arm to the ground. "Do it now. I can't hold her much longer."
Ianto's scrabbling fingers finally found the end of the handle. He lurched to his feet and swung it above his head. The blade whistled through the air as he brought it down as hard as he could, the sound of the sharp edge impacting flesh and shattering bone sickening him for a moment. He watched as Jack slumped heavily over Beth's body as it jerked violently a few times before stilling, and the implant buried in the severed arm pulsed furiously for a few moments before going dark.
Breathing heavily, Ianto fell to his knees at the side of the fallen bodies and reached out to roll Jack carefully off of Beth. Jack's eyes stared emptily at the ceiling and Ianto sighed heavily as he shifted over to sit at the other man's side, taking Jack's cold hand in his own warm one. He rested there numbly as his eyes wandered back out to the main hub, taking in the splashes of blood covering the walkway and railings, automatically listing what would need to be done to clean up without a conscious thought. Looking at Jack and then to Beth, he felt a tightness in his throat as his mind drifted back to the day Lisa died. Her death still haunted him, despite his declarations that he eventually understood why Jack had done what he had. But in all honesty, he hadn't understood, a part of him argued that they could have done more. But it was in this moment that he finally truly knew why Jack had done it. They couldn't have saved Lisa then, and they couldn't have saved Beth now. Her humanity had been slowly fading away, and when it was gone, she would have been a danger to all of them, just like Lisa had been. He had simply been too stubborn and blinded by love at the time to see. But Jack had seen the truth, and as he sat there clutching the man's hand, Ianto let the tears come as he finally felt like he understood the man he had come to love and admire.