The Sword of Damocles, Part 2
Rose was starting to get annoyed. Usually when she and the Doctor went to explore a mansion, they’d find some sort of adventure, or at least meet someone interesting. All they’d come across on this trip was various types of beings having sex. While the Doctor seemed almost amused- she could practically hear the ‘lower life forms’ lecture gearing up in his head- Rose was both bored and mildly disgusted.
“I can’t believe this place,” she muttered to the Doctor as they passed some barely-clothed fuchsia aliens in the hallway. “Doesn’t anyone have anything better to do?”
“It’s their vacation, Rose,” the Doctor chided. “Some races would think lyin’ on the beach in a swimsuit would be inappropriate- even people on your own planet.”
Rose scowled. She was in the mood for an adventure, not an anthropology lesson. Suddenly she caught sight of an ornate door at the end of a shadowy hallway. “What’s that?” she asked, feeling excitement begin to burn through her limbs.
The Doctor grinned. “Let’s find out.”
The door was locked, but it was no trouble for the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver. Inside was a wide, pink room with a round glass ceiling that let in purple light from outside, illuminating a rectangular shape covered up in the center of the room.
Rose scowled at the nude statutes scattered around. “Seriously…”
“Rose.”
She hurried over to the Doctor, who had removed the dusty red sheet from the shape in the middle of the room. “What is it?” she asked excitedly, examining what looked like an empty fish tank. “Is it, I don’t know, an alter for some strange religion? Or, oh! A psychic massage table! I could really do with a massage…”
“It’s a cloning machine,” the Doctor said tonelessly.
Rose finally looked at husband’s face and her enthusiasm drained away. “What’s the matter with that?” she asked. “They clone stuff on Earth. Only sheep, but that’s the future, isn’t it?”
“For medical purposes, sometimes. Not like this.” The Doctor darted to the wall, where a computer was neatly melded to the side of the wall. He aimed his Screwdriver at the screen and it turned on instantly, flashing through a succession of files until it showed a list of alien characters. Rose squinted, and they began to translate thanks to the Tardis, but the Doctor read faster than she could and switched to another screen. “Hey, lemme catch up!” she protested.
“This is bad, Rose,” the Doctor intoned. “They’re growing people here. Live people, not just organs.”
“Like, test-tube babies?”
“Like test-tube adults. You could make the perfect soldier like this,” he said ominously. “Or the perfect slave.”
A series of pictures flashed across the screen, mostly humanoid, but some that were multi-colored or intricately patterned. All were unusually beautiful. All had a large red X covering their pictures.
“Are they all…” Rose asked nervously.
“Dead. Decommissioned. Thrown away, like yesterday’s garbage.” The Doctor sounded disgusted, and Rose couldn’t blame him. Then she gasped. “Oh my God, Doctor, that’s-”
“Ianto,” he finished. They stared at the image on the screen of an innocent pale man, the same man they’d last seen dancing with-
“Jack!”
[*]
When Jack’s Vortex Manipulator told them two hours had passed, he gave Ianto a gentle kiss on the forehead and repeated his promise that he would take Ianto away from the planet. He opened the door to the room and was unsurprised to find two cyber-groupies guarding the door. He faked a satisfied smile and asked them where he could find the guest suites. As soon as he was out of view, the superior air disappeared and he strode authoritatively down the stone halls toward the Doctor and Rose’s rooms.
Jack tried to maintain calm, but his hands shook with anger at what had been done to Ianto. Jack had a lifelong hatred of slavery, as Boeshane was often preyed upon by pirates and slavers. It wasn’t until he was fourteen that his Peninsula had been hit, and his brother taken. Jack knew it was at least partially transference from Gray’s kidnappers that made him hate Lisa so much, but he couldn’t force himself to act rationally when Ianto’s voice, calmly explaining how he would be blinded, still echoed in his mind.
By the time he reached the guest suites he was enraged, and it was only the sight of the Doctor’s dangerously serious face that stopped him from starting something in the middle of the corridor. Jack nodded sharply to the door they were standing around and the three travelers entered, the Doctor closing the door firmly behind them.
“The Controller’s running a cloning-”
“That bitch has created her own-”
They froze, staring at each other, and despite the gravity of the situation. Rose snorted.
“You first,” Jack said, still smoldering.
“Lisa has her own personal cloning machine,” the Doctor explained. “She’s created dozens of life-forms, trying to create the perfect lover.”
“Ianto,” Jack growled.
“Exactly. Good thing is, it looks like hers is the only machine. It’s a mix of Earth technology from the nineteen-seventies and contemporaneous systems, nearly impossible to recreate.”
“Great. Now how are we going to take her down?”
“Who says we’re going to do anything?” the Doctor retorted, faux-mild. Rose narrowed her eyes, remembering his anger after they found the clone room, but he looked only at Jack, deceptively blank-faced.
“She grew Ianto like a plant!” the former con-man raged. “She rents him out for political influence. He’s her own personal sex slave, and the worst part is, he doesn’t know any better!”
“Seemed to work out fine for you,” the Doctor countered sarcastically. “Did you figure it out before the dancing or after?”
Jack looked ready to explode. Rose felt it was time to step in. “Doctor, stop that,” she ordered. “You know Jack wouldn’t take advantage of someone like that, not if he knew what was goin’ on.” The Doctor glared, but grumbled an apology. “So I’m assuming we’re not going to let this Controller go on killing people, which means we need a plan.”
“I promised Ianto we’d take him away,” Jack informed them.
The Doctor scowled. “My Tardis is not a taxi service, Captain.”
“I don’t want to drop him off somewhere, I want to take him with us. Or, whatever he wants,” he finished more quietly.
“You really like him?” Rose smiled.
Jack nodded. “He’s so innocent. He’s never been outside the grounds of the mansion, was never educated, but he taught himself how to read and speak the traders’ language for this quadrant.”
“Sounds like you’re smitten, Jack Harkness,” she teased. Her smile faded when he responded seriously.
“He’s so naïve in some ways, but he’s intuitive, and kind, and…” He swallowed, then noticed the Doctor and Rose watching him closely. “And smoking hot, of course.” As they continued to stare, “I’m not smitten!” Rose giggled. “I’m not!”
“Has he told you he wants to leave?” the Doctor asked.
“Not in so many words, but… this isn’t a good life for him, and he knows it. I think he’s just never considered leaving.”
“We can’t just whisk him off into the Tardis without his consent,” the Doctor said quietly. Rose took his hand in support. “We’ve been invited to breakfast tomorrow morning with Lisa. We’ll make a plan tonight and standby at breakfast.”
Jack’s eyes were dark. “I don’t want to leave him in this place even for one night that we could take him away.”
“That’s the plan, Captain,” the Doctor said firmly, gaze demanding compliance. “We’re going to give Lisa a chance to surrender.”
Seeing Jack was still tense, Rose smiled at him. “It’s only one night. He’s waited this long, he can wait just one more night, right?”
[*]
Once Ianto’s guest- no, his Mistress’s guest- no, Jack- had left, Ianto hesitated. He normally straightened up the visiting room, cleaned himself and the toys that had been used, but this time there was nothing to clean or straighten. Remembering that sir- Jack, wanted to keep up the charade that they’d had sex, Ianto took a shower and dallied for a few minutes before leaving for his Mistress’s room as usual.
Ianto felt very strange, like the whole world had moved around him and things weren’t where he had left them. This was a particularly strange feeling because the world never changed, not for him. Every day was another party, another important person to entertain, another chance to show his Mistress how much he loved her.
He did love her, didn’t he? She’d told him so. He was created to be the perfect lover, and lover meant love, didn’t it? She said she loved him. Well, usually she said she loved his arse or his clever hands or some other part of his body, but that’s what he was, right? A body?
Except Jack didn’t seem to think so. Jack wanted to know what he liked, not just what he was. Jack said he cared about him. Ianto was glad Jack hadn’t said he loved him, because then he wouldn’t know where they stood at all. Lisa said she was the only person who would ever love him, but she hurt him. If that was what love was… then was it a good thing, that no one else could ever love a creation?
Maybe love wasn’t what he needed. Maybe… this caring was what he needed.
When he arrived at his Mistress’s bedroom, she had already taken off most of her Cyberman design. “You’re done already?” she asked scandalously, as she often did. “How was it, Ianto?”
“He left very satisfied,” Ianto replied. He’d learned that was what his Mistress wanted to hear, and so that and a few other stock answers had become rote. Except this time, he found himself wondering if Jack had been satisfied. Should he have tried harder to convince Jack to use the toys? He’d seen how excited they made Jack when they first entered the room.
Ianto wondered why he found himself wishing that he’d been able to make Jack happy.
“Good,” his Mistress said firmly, removing the skin-cling metal she’d designed for the intimate areas of her body, leaving her completely naked. “If the Chancellor’s friends are happy, it’s more likely he’ll give a good report of our region to the House of Chancellors. And do you know what that means, Ianto?”
Ianto tried to remember the significance of the House of Chancellors. It was difficult. He’d never talked to any of these dignitaries, only slept with them. “Money?”
“Exactly, my dear,” his Mistress purred, brushing one hand through his hair and cupping his cock through his pants with the other. “We’ll get lots and lots of money.”
“Mistress?” he asked quietly.
She scowled at being interrupted. “What?”
“You do… love me, don’t you?” he said tentatively.
“Of course I do,” she snapped. “I created you, didn’t I?”
“Do you think we could… tonight, we could…”
“What are you in the mood for?” His Mistress was smiling at him again, and that should have made him feel good, but he didn’t want her to look at his body the way she was then.
“Could we… cuddle?”
She turned her head like she misheard him. “Could we what?!”
Ianto gulped. “Cuddle,” he repeated in a very small voice.
He was looking at the ground submissively, so he didn’t see her face as she grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him bodily onto the bed. His Mistress’s muscles had been reinforced by her designs, and when he hit the headboard he knew that he was going to have a heavy bruise on the side of his face the next morning.
“Who is in charge here, Ianto?” she said imperiously.
He shuffled to kneel in the center of the bed, head down. “You are, Mistress.”
“And who makes the decisions?”
“You do, Mistress.”
“I don’t ever want to hear you talk about cuddling again,” she whispered, her face inches above his and very, very dangerous. “Do you understand me?”
“Yes Mistress.”
He could hear her breathing heavily in anger and quailed inside at the thought of punishment.
“This can’t be your fault,” she mused. “Someone must have put the idea in your head. So instead of making you pay for upsetting me, I’ll allow you to make it up to me. Would you like that, Ianto?”
“Oh yes, Mistress, please let me apologize,” he begged. Ianto blinked rapidly at the bedspread, clinging to even that banal image when he knew that his vision could be turned off at any moment. “I’ll do anything you want!”
“I know you will,” his Mistress murmured, stroking his lowered chin until he was looking her in the eyes again. “Because you’re mine, aren’t you Ianto?”
He opened his mouth to respond, and faltered for an instant when blue eyes- caring blue eyes- appeared in his mind. “Y-yes Mistress, I’m yours.”
She frowned. “Then prove it.” She let herself fall back onto the bed, writhing blatantly and spreading her body open for his ministrations.
Ianto licked his lips and wondered why he was imagining someone else as he went to work.
[*]
Jack had to call upon all the confidence tricks he’d learned to keep up the image of a carefree vacationer as they sat down to breakfast the next morning in an opulent dining hall. After a sleepless night imagining all the things Lisa could be doing to Ianto, ways she could be hurting him, he could hardly sum up the energy to smile at the busty man who served them drinks.
When Lisa arrived- stylishly late- she swept into the room imperiously, drawing all eyes to her and the silver shimmer of today’s outfit, a tight corset of woven metal strips. Ianto followed a few steps behind her, somewhat more conservatively dressed than the evening before in a tight corset and shorts similar to Lisa’s in thin gold strips. He was moving slowly and when he turned to sit at Lisa’s left hand bruises were visible down the side of his face.
Jack had to put down his drink to avoid shattering the glass.
“I trust you had a restful evening Chancellor, Rose, Jack?” Lisa shook the Doctor’s hand and smiled at Rose and Jack. Rose managed to respond in kind, but Jack was staring intently at Ianto, who was only looking at his empty plate.
“Jack,” the Doctor prompted sternly.
Jack gave Lisa a winning smile. “I’m sorry, Lisa. I was lost in thought.”
“Yes, my Ianto has a tendency to make people forget their bearings.” Her smile gained an edge as she looked at her servant.
“I’m afraid I’ve mislead you, Lisa,” the Doctor said amiably.
The dark woman looked at him with interest, but she didn’t seem at all surprised. “Oh? So you’re not here for pleasure, Chancellor?”
“We’ve heard reports from this region that someone has been involved in cloning. Illegal cloning. As Controller of this region, you would be able to tell me if you’d arrested anyone for cloning, wouldn’t you?”
Lisa’s face didn’t give away a thing. “I can’t say I remember. But Ianto’s been my assistant for almost three years now. Do you remember anyone arrested for cloning in that time?” she asked Ianto sweetly.
“No Mistress,” Ianto said quietly.
The Doctor looked at Lisa closely. “That’s funny. ‘Cause our sources said you had something to do with it, Lisa. That these laws were being broken in your house.”
The Controller sat up stiffly. “I am offended by the implication, Chancellor. I would never take part in something so dishonorable.”
An old woman with faintly green-tinged white hair entered the dining hall bearing a heavy covered tray. It was set in the middle of the table and the cover removed, revealing an oddly-shaped roast.
“I am very generous to all my employees, Chancellor,” Lisa continued, picking up a carving knife from the tray and slicing off a large chunk. “For example: this is Ianto’s favorite breakfast meat.” She placed the slab on Ianto’s plate. “I love each and every one of my darlings and I spare no expense. Dig in, Ianto.”
Ianto picked up his knife and fork and cut the meat with hands that shook. His eyes remained glued on his plate. When he had cut off a bite of the meat and picked it up with the fork, his hand shook and the meat remained in the air before his mouth.
“Go on,” Lisa said softly, staring intently at the pale man. “Eat it!”
“Ianto?” Jack whispered in alarm.
For the first time, Ianto looked at Jack. Jack stood up from the table in alarm at Ianto’s crossing, unseeing eyes. “Doctor!” he cried.
The Doctor whipped out his Sonic Screwdriver and it buzzed at the roast. He gave Lisa a look of disgust. “It’s clone meat. Probably the last one you killed.”
Ianto dropped the fork and pushed back from the table, staring sightlessly at the plate. “Annie!” he choked.
“What is that!” Lisa demanded, pointing at the Sonic Screwdriver. “That’s from off-planet. No Chancellor would use an imported weapon! Guards!” she shrieked, her voice taking on an echoing metallic quality. A dozen robots emerged from panels in the walls and haltingly moved inwards to surround the diners.
Jack vaulted over the table and dragged Ianto from his chair. “We’ll keep you safe, I promise!” he whispered as Ianto clutched him desperately.
“How dare you, Ianto,” Lisa hissed. “How dare you choose another over me. I loved you!”
Ianto shook his head. “What you did- that can’t be love. If it was, people wouldn’t want it so much.”
Lisa’s face turned downright evil. “I made you, Ianto. I can break you just as easily.” She pointed at the two men and blue electricity shot out of her wrist ornament. Jack pulled Ianto down just in time and the bolt hit one of the approaching robots, turning it to stone.
“Come on!” Jack shouted, ushering Ianto through the gap in the line of robots. They dashed out of the room, holding onto each other tightly.
“After them!” Lisa screamed.
[*]
Lisa’s attention was diverted for less than a minute. The Doctor grabbed Rose’s hand and turned his Sonic Screwdriver on one of the robots, causing it to spark and fall to the ground. The couple ran from the dining hall in the direction of the cloning chamber.
“First time out as a married couple,” the Doctor commented as they dashed through the halls past mystified alien partiers.
Rose laughed and squeezed his hand. “Does this mean our honeymoon’s over?”
“I’d say it’s just begun.” The Doctor grinned and squeezed back.
They reached the cloning room and the Doctor went straight to the computers, deleting every record of Lisa’s experiments. Rose picked up an abandoned microphone stand she’d noticed the last time they were in the room and stood in front of the cloning machine. “Ready?” she asked.
The Doctor looked over his shoulder at her and nodded. “Ready.”
Rose lifted the stand and began smashing the machine, first taking out the glass panes and then targeting the delicate equipment inside. As soon as she hit it the first time, alarms began to flash all around the room.
Rose grabbed the Doctor’s hand as they ran toward the front hall, praying they’d get there in time.
[*]
“Stairs,” Jack warned.
“Up or down?”
“Down.” They began to stumble down the wide steps, but Ianto stopped halfway, clutching Jack’s arms desperately. “Jack, I can’t!” he protested. “I can’t do this, I’m not an adventurer like you. I’m just a design.”
“You can be,” Jack told him, looking over their shoulders as he coaxed Ianto down the stairs. “You’ll be amazing, you just have to let go of everything she told you. I believe in you, Ianto!”
They reached the bottom of the stairs and the main hall. Jack could see the front doors. “We’re almost there!”
“How touching.” Lisa’s voice rang through the hall as she emerged between Jack and Ianto and the door. “He believes in you, Ianto, did you hear that? I’m sure he believes you’ll make him a lot of money when he takes you to his own planet’s resorts!”
“Not everyone places a higher value on money than lives,” Jack said, enraged at the accusation.
“Of course,” Lisa agreed, smiling dangerously. “You probably want him all for yourself. Has he said he loves you, Ianto? You don’t believe him, do you? You know I’m the only one who could ever love you. Really, I’m doing you a favor.” She raised her arm, aiming at Jack. There was nowhere to hide.
“No, he hasn’t,” Ianto whispered.
Jack saw the blue energy gather around Lisa’s wrist, and then he was staring at the stone statue of Ianto, between him and Lisa. “No!” he shouted, voice cracking. “Ianto!”
Two robots grabbed him from behind, dragging him out before Lisa. Another robot handed her a pickaxe, which she hefted as she stepped up to Ianto. Jack struggled against the robots, but he was unable to break their hold.
“You have displeased me for the last time,” she hissed, raising the axe.
Sirens began blaring and red lights flashed. Lisa spun around. “My machine!” she murmured, and then screamed. “My machine!”
She turned to Jack, eyes blazing with hatred. “This is all your fault.” She stormed toward him. “You will die knowing that your friends will suffer for this, and that I will reset Ianto’s brain to make him my perfect servant, just as he was before your interference!”
“You’ll never break him again,” Jack said defiantly. “He’s learned that there’s a world out there beyond you. You can’t make someone forget that.”
With a murderous shriek, Lisa drew the pickaxe over her head. Jack closed his eyes-
-and opened them again.
Lisa’s frozen stone statue stood before him, pickaxe halfway descended and face twisted with madness. Behind her, Ianto was gasping for air.
Jack pulled away from the robots, who had stalled out where they stood. He caught sight of Rose and the Doctor across the hall, Sonic Screwdriver still raised. “Cutting it a little close, eh Doc?” he said lightly, feeling the near-death adrenaline high kicking in.
He looked at Ianto and his grin melted away. His vision had clearly returned, because he was staring at Lisa in devastation. “Mistress,” he whimpered. He stumbled toward her and Jack caught him in a hug, bearing some of Ianto’s weight as he sobbed.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Jack whispered, holding him tightly while the Doctor and Rose approached, wearing matching sympathetic looks.
“I loved her,” Ianto said, sounding bewildered and distraught.
“I know you did,” Jack said back. “I know.”
“We should probably go to the Tardis,” Rose suggested quietly. She looked at the Doctor. “Before someone comes to investigate the alarms.”
The Doctor nodded and the party made their way out of the mansion and across the lawn to the Tardis.
Inside, Jack sat Ianto down on the couch. The young man had stopped crying and was looking around the console room in shock. “But… it’s bigger on the inside,” he said in confusion.
“I said I’d show you amazing things, didn’t I?”
Ianto nodded. “Yes, you did.”
The Tardis took off into the Vortex smoothly, for once, and the Doctor and Rose approached the two men. “Ianto,” the Doctor said kindly. “I’m the Doctor.” He stuck out his hand.
Still looking rather shell-shocked, Ianto took it. “Doctor who?” he asked.
“Just the Doctor. And I want to take you on a trip. We can go anywhere in the universe you like, even through time.”
Ianto’s eyes widened. “I don’t know anywhere that’s not on Transsexual.”
Rose stepped forward. “Or, you could stay here, with us. We’d love to have you. Wouldn’t we, Doctor?” she prompted her husband.
“Of course we would,” the Doctor agreed.
“I could stay with you?” Ianto said to Jack.
“If that’s what you want,” Jack replied.
“You said you cared about me. Do you want me to stay?”
Jack took a deep breath, trying to hold on to his emotions. “I want what’ll make you happy. I’d love for you to stay, but if you want to leave…”
“I want to stay with you,” Ianto said certainly, and kissed him.
Jack kissed him back for a moment, then broke it off. “Ianto, you don’t have to do that.”
“But I want to,” Ianto insisted fervently. “I- I care about you, Jack.”
Jack broke into a smile and practically shook with happiness. “Then you can stay!” he whispered.
“You know,” the Doctor commented as the moment drew out and Ianto and Jack seemed content to sit in each other’s arms, “the Tardis is a bit angry that she didn’t get to finish her nap. She wants us to go somewhere that’s sure to have no trouble for at least three days.”
Rose grinned. “Another honeymoon planet?”
The Doctor grinned back. “Just what I was thinking. What do you say, Jack?”
“Think you could handle it?” Rose teased.
Jack rolled his eyes.
“What’s a honeymoon?” Ianto asked, and Jack’s face softened.
“I’ll explain when we get there.”
And they all lived happily ever after.
“I can’t believe this place,” she muttered to the Doctor as they passed some barely-clothed fuchsia aliens in the hallway. “Doesn’t anyone have anything better to do?”
“It’s their vacation, Rose,” the Doctor chided. “Some races would think lyin’ on the beach in a swimsuit would be inappropriate- even people on your own planet.”
Rose scowled. She was in the mood for an adventure, not an anthropology lesson. Suddenly she caught sight of an ornate door at the end of a shadowy hallway. “What’s that?” she asked, feeling excitement begin to burn through her limbs.
The Doctor grinned. “Let’s find out.”
The door was locked, but it was no trouble for the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver. Inside was a wide, pink room with a round glass ceiling that let in purple light from outside, illuminating a rectangular shape covered up in the center of the room.
Rose scowled at the nude statutes scattered around. “Seriously…”
“Rose.”
She hurried over to the Doctor, who had removed the dusty red sheet from the shape in the middle of the room. “What is it?” she asked excitedly, examining what looked like an empty fish tank. “Is it, I don’t know, an alter for some strange religion? Or, oh! A psychic massage table! I could really do with a massage…”
“It’s a cloning machine,” the Doctor said tonelessly.
Rose finally looked at husband’s face and her enthusiasm drained away. “What’s the matter with that?” she asked. “They clone stuff on Earth. Only sheep, but that’s the future, isn’t it?”
“For medical purposes, sometimes. Not like this.” The Doctor darted to the wall, where a computer was neatly melded to the side of the wall. He aimed his Screwdriver at the screen and it turned on instantly, flashing through a succession of files until it showed a list of alien characters. Rose squinted, and they began to translate thanks to the Tardis, but the Doctor read faster than she could and switched to another screen. “Hey, lemme catch up!” she protested.
“This is bad, Rose,” the Doctor intoned. “They’re growing people here. Live people, not just organs.”
“Like, test-tube babies?”
“Like test-tube adults. You could make the perfect soldier like this,” he said ominously. “Or the perfect slave.”
A series of pictures flashed across the screen, mostly humanoid, but some that were multi-colored or intricately patterned. All were unusually beautiful. All had a large red X covering their pictures.
“Are they all…” Rose asked nervously.
“Dead. Decommissioned. Thrown away, like yesterday’s garbage.” The Doctor sounded disgusted, and Rose couldn’t blame him. Then she gasped. “Oh my God, Doctor, that’s-”
“Ianto,” he finished. They stared at the image on the screen of an innocent pale man, the same man they’d last seen dancing with-
“Jack!”
[*]
When Jack’s Vortex Manipulator told them two hours had passed, he gave Ianto a gentle kiss on the forehead and repeated his promise that he would take Ianto away from the planet. He opened the door to the room and was unsurprised to find two cyber-groupies guarding the door. He faked a satisfied smile and asked them where he could find the guest suites. As soon as he was out of view, the superior air disappeared and he strode authoritatively down the stone halls toward the Doctor and Rose’s rooms.
Jack tried to maintain calm, but his hands shook with anger at what had been done to Ianto. Jack had a lifelong hatred of slavery, as Boeshane was often preyed upon by pirates and slavers. It wasn’t until he was fourteen that his Peninsula had been hit, and his brother taken. Jack knew it was at least partially transference from Gray’s kidnappers that made him hate Lisa so much, but he couldn’t force himself to act rationally when Ianto’s voice, calmly explaining how he would be blinded, still echoed in his mind.
By the time he reached the guest suites he was enraged, and it was only the sight of the Doctor’s dangerously serious face that stopped him from starting something in the middle of the corridor. Jack nodded sharply to the door they were standing around and the three travelers entered, the Doctor closing the door firmly behind them.
“The Controller’s running a cloning-”
“That bitch has created her own-”
They froze, staring at each other, and despite the gravity of the situation. Rose snorted.
“You first,” Jack said, still smoldering.
“Lisa has her own personal cloning machine,” the Doctor explained. “She’s created dozens of life-forms, trying to create the perfect lover.”
“Ianto,” Jack growled.
“Exactly. Good thing is, it looks like hers is the only machine. It’s a mix of Earth technology from the nineteen-seventies and contemporaneous systems, nearly impossible to recreate.”
“Great. Now how are we going to take her down?”
“Who says we’re going to do anything?” the Doctor retorted, faux-mild. Rose narrowed her eyes, remembering his anger after they found the clone room, but he looked only at Jack, deceptively blank-faced.
“She grew Ianto like a plant!” the former con-man raged. “She rents him out for political influence. He’s her own personal sex slave, and the worst part is, he doesn’t know any better!”
“Seemed to work out fine for you,” the Doctor countered sarcastically. “Did you figure it out before the dancing or after?”
Jack looked ready to explode. Rose felt it was time to step in. “Doctor, stop that,” she ordered. “You know Jack wouldn’t take advantage of someone like that, not if he knew what was goin’ on.” The Doctor glared, but grumbled an apology. “So I’m assuming we’re not going to let this Controller go on killing people, which means we need a plan.”
“I promised Ianto we’d take him away,” Jack informed them.
The Doctor scowled. “My Tardis is not a taxi service, Captain.”
“I don’t want to drop him off somewhere, I want to take him with us. Or, whatever he wants,” he finished more quietly.
“You really like him?” Rose smiled.
Jack nodded. “He’s so innocent. He’s never been outside the grounds of the mansion, was never educated, but he taught himself how to read and speak the traders’ language for this quadrant.”
“Sounds like you’re smitten, Jack Harkness,” she teased. Her smile faded when he responded seriously.
“He’s so naïve in some ways, but he’s intuitive, and kind, and…” He swallowed, then noticed the Doctor and Rose watching him closely. “And smoking hot, of course.” As they continued to stare, “I’m not smitten!” Rose giggled. “I’m not!”
“Has he told you he wants to leave?” the Doctor asked.
“Not in so many words, but… this isn’t a good life for him, and he knows it. I think he’s just never considered leaving.”
“We can’t just whisk him off into the Tardis without his consent,” the Doctor said quietly. Rose took his hand in support. “We’ve been invited to breakfast tomorrow morning with Lisa. We’ll make a plan tonight and standby at breakfast.”
Jack’s eyes were dark. “I don’t want to leave him in this place even for one night that we could take him away.”
“That’s the plan, Captain,” the Doctor said firmly, gaze demanding compliance. “We’re going to give Lisa a chance to surrender.”
Seeing Jack was still tense, Rose smiled at him. “It’s only one night. He’s waited this long, he can wait just one more night, right?”
[*]
Once Ianto’s guest- no, his Mistress’s guest- no, Jack- had left, Ianto hesitated. He normally straightened up the visiting room, cleaned himself and the toys that had been used, but this time there was nothing to clean or straighten. Remembering that sir- Jack, wanted to keep up the charade that they’d had sex, Ianto took a shower and dallied for a few minutes before leaving for his Mistress’s room as usual.
Ianto felt very strange, like the whole world had moved around him and things weren’t where he had left them. This was a particularly strange feeling because the world never changed, not for him. Every day was another party, another important person to entertain, another chance to show his Mistress how much he loved her.
He did love her, didn’t he? She’d told him so. He was created to be the perfect lover, and lover meant love, didn’t it? She said she loved him. Well, usually she said she loved his arse or his clever hands or some other part of his body, but that’s what he was, right? A body?
Except Jack didn’t seem to think so. Jack wanted to know what he liked, not just what he was. Jack said he cared about him. Ianto was glad Jack hadn’t said he loved him, because then he wouldn’t know where they stood at all. Lisa said she was the only person who would ever love him, but she hurt him. If that was what love was… then was it a good thing, that no one else could ever love a creation?
Maybe love wasn’t what he needed. Maybe… this caring was what he needed.
When he arrived at his Mistress’s bedroom, she had already taken off most of her Cyberman design. “You’re done already?” she asked scandalously, as she often did. “How was it, Ianto?”
“He left very satisfied,” Ianto replied. He’d learned that was what his Mistress wanted to hear, and so that and a few other stock answers had become rote. Except this time, he found himself wondering if Jack had been satisfied. Should he have tried harder to convince Jack to use the toys? He’d seen how excited they made Jack when they first entered the room.
Ianto wondered why he found himself wishing that he’d been able to make Jack happy.
“Good,” his Mistress said firmly, removing the skin-cling metal she’d designed for the intimate areas of her body, leaving her completely naked. “If the Chancellor’s friends are happy, it’s more likely he’ll give a good report of our region to the House of Chancellors. And do you know what that means, Ianto?”
Ianto tried to remember the significance of the House of Chancellors. It was difficult. He’d never talked to any of these dignitaries, only slept with them. “Money?”
“Exactly, my dear,” his Mistress purred, brushing one hand through his hair and cupping his cock through his pants with the other. “We’ll get lots and lots of money.”
“Mistress?” he asked quietly.
She scowled at being interrupted. “What?”
“You do… love me, don’t you?” he said tentatively.
“Of course I do,” she snapped. “I created you, didn’t I?”
“Do you think we could… tonight, we could…”
“What are you in the mood for?” His Mistress was smiling at him again, and that should have made him feel good, but he didn’t want her to look at his body the way she was then.
“Could we… cuddle?”
She turned her head like she misheard him. “Could we what?!”
Ianto gulped. “Cuddle,” he repeated in a very small voice.
He was looking at the ground submissively, so he didn’t see her face as she grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him bodily onto the bed. His Mistress’s muscles had been reinforced by her designs, and when he hit the headboard he knew that he was going to have a heavy bruise on the side of his face the next morning.
“Who is in charge here, Ianto?” she said imperiously.
He shuffled to kneel in the center of the bed, head down. “You are, Mistress.”
“And who makes the decisions?”
“You do, Mistress.”
“I don’t ever want to hear you talk about cuddling again,” she whispered, her face inches above his and very, very dangerous. “Do you understand me?”
“Yes Mistress.”
He could hear her breathing heavily in anger and quailed inside at the thought of punishment.
“This can’t be your fault,” she mused. “Someone must have put the idea in your head. So instead of making you pay for upsetting me, I’ll allow you to make it up to me. Would you like that, Ianto?”
“Oh yes, Mistress, please let me apologize,” he begged. Ianto blinked rapidly at the bedspread, clinging to even that banal image when he knew that his vision could be turned off at any moment. “I’ll do anything you want!”
“I know you will,” his Mistress murmured, stroking his lowered chin until he was looking her in the eyes again. “Because you’re mine, aren’t you Ianto?”
He opened his mouth to respond, and faltered for an instant when blue eyes- caring blue eyes- appeared in his mind. “Y-yes Mistress, I’m yours.”
She frowned. “Then prove it.” She let herself fall back onto the bed, writhing blatantly and spreading her body open for his ministrations.
Ianto licked his lips and wondered why he was imagining someone else as he went to work.
[*]
Jack had to call upon all the confidence tricks he’d learned to keep up the image of a carefree vacationer as they sat down to breakfast the next morning in an opulent dining hall. After a sleepless night imagining all the things Lisa could be doing to Ianto, ways she could be hurting him, he could hardly sum up the energy to smile at the busty man who served them drinks.
When Lisa arrived- stylishly late- she swept into the room imperiously, drawing all eyes to her and the silver shimmer of today’s outfit, a tight corset of woven metal strips. Ianto followed a few steps behind her, somewhat more conservatively dressed than the evening before in a tight corset and shorts similar to Lisa’s in thin gold strips. He was moving slowly and when he turned to sit at Lisa’s left hand bruises were visible down the side of his face.
Jack had to put down his drink to avoid shattering the glass.
“I trust you had a restful evening Chancellor, Rose, Jack?” Lisa shook the Doctor’s hand and smiled at Rose and Jack. Rose managed to respond in kind, but Jack was staring intently at Ianto, who was only looking at his empty plate.
“Jack,” the Doctor prompted sternly.
Jack gave Lisa a winning smile. “I’m sorry, Lisa. I was lost in thought.”
“Yes, my Ianto has a tendency to make people forget their bearings.” Her smile gained an edge as she looked at her servant.
“I’m afraid I’ve mislead you, Lisa,” the Doctor said amiably.
The dark woman looked at him with interest, but she didn’t seem at all surprised. “Oh? So you’re not here for pleasure, Chancellor?”
“We’ve heard reports from this region that someone has been involved in cloning. Illegal cloning. As Controller of this region, you would be able to tell me if you’d arrested anyone for cloning, wouldn’t you?”
Lisa’s face didn’t give away a thing. “I can’t say I remember. But Ianto’s been my assistant for almost three years now. Do you remember anyone arrested for cloning in that time?” she asked Ianto sweetly.
“No Mistress,” Ianto said quietly.
The Doctor looked at Lisa closely. “That’s funny. ‘Cause our sources said you had something to do with it, Lisa. That these laws were being broken in your house.”
The Controller sat up stiffly. “I am offended by the implication, Chancellor. I would never take part in something so dishonorable.”
An old woman with faintly green-tinged white hair entered the dining hall bearing a heavy covered tray. It was set in the middle of the table and the cover removed, revealing an oddly-shaped roast.
“I am very generous to all my employees, Chancellor,” Lisa continued, picking up a carving knife from the tray and slicing off a large chunk. “For example: this is Ianto’s favorite breakfast meat.” She placed the slab on Ianto’s plate. “I love each and every one of my darlings and I spare no expense. Dig in, Ianto.”
Ianto picked up his knife and fork and cut the meat with hands that shook. His eyes remained glued on his plate. When he had cut off a bite of the meat and picked it up with the fork, his hand shook and the meat remained in the air before his mouth.
“Go on,” Lisa said softly, staring intently at the pale man. “Eat it!”
“Ianto?” Jack whispered in alarm.
For the first time, Ianto looked at Jack. Jack stood up from the table in alarm at Ianto’s crossing, unseeing eyes. “Doctor!” he cried.
The Doctor whipped out his Sonic Screwdriver and it buzzed at the roast. He gave Lisa a look of disgust. “It’s clone meat. Probably the last one you killed.”
Ianto dropped the fork and pushed back from the table, staring sightlessly at the plate. “Annie!” he choked.
“What is that!” Lisa demanded, pointing at the Sonic Screwdriver. “That’s from off-planet. No Chancellor would use an imported weapon! Guards!” she shrieked, her voice taking on an echoing metallic quality. A dozen robots emerged from panels in the walls and haltingly moved inwards to surround the diners.
Jack vaulted over the table and dragged Ianto from his chair. “We’ll keep you safe, I promise!” he whispered as Ianto clutched him desperately.
“How dare you, Ianto,” Lisa hissed. “How dare you choose another over me. I loved you!”
Ianto shook his head. “What you did- that can’t be love. If it was, people wouldn’t want it so much.”
Lisa’s face turned downright evil. “I made you, Ianto. I can break you just as easily.” She pointed at the two men and blue electricity shot out of her wrist ornament. Jack pulled Ianto down just in time and the bolt hit one of the approaching robots, turning it to stone.
“Come on!” Jack shouted, ushering Ianto through the gap in the line of robots. They dashed out of the room, holding onto each other tightly.
“After them!” Lisa screamed.
[*]
Lisa’s attention was diverted for less than a minute. The Doctor grabbed Rose’s hand and turned his Sonic Screwdriver on one of the robots, causing it to spark and fall to the ground. The couple ran from the dining hall in the direction of the cloning chamber.
“First time out as a married couple,” the Doctor commented as they dashed through the halls past mystified alien partiers.
Rose laughed and squeezed his hand. “Does this mean our honeymoon’s over?”
“I’d say it’s just begun.” The Doctor grinned and squeezed back.
They reached the cloning room and the Doctor went straight to the computers, deleting every record of Lisa’s experiments. Rose picked up an abandoned microphone stand she’d noticed the last time they were in the room and stood in front of the cloning machine. “Ready?” she asked.
The Doctor looked over his shoulder at her and nodded. “Ready.”
Rose lifted the stand and began smashing the machine, first taking out the glass panes and then targeting the delicate equipment inside. As soon as she hit it the first time, alarms began to flash all around the room.
Rose grabbed the Doctor’s hand as they ran toward the front hall, praying they’d get there in time.
[*]
“Stairs,” Jack warned.
“Up or down?”
“Down.” They began to stumble down the wide steps, but Ianto stopped halfway, clutching Jack’s arms desperately. “Jack, I can’t!” he protested. “I can’t do this, I’m not an adventurer like you. I’m just a design.”
“You can be,” Jack told him, looking over their shoulders as he coaxed Ianto down the stairs. “You’ll be amazing, you just have to let go of everything she told you. I believe in you, Ianto!”
They reached the bottom of the stairs and the main hall. Jack could see the front doors. “We’re almost there!”
“How touching.” Lisa’s voice rang through the hall as she emerged between Jack and Ianto and the door. “He believes in you, Ianto, did you hear that? I’m sure he believes you’ll make him a lot of money when he takes you to his own planet’s resorts!”
“Not everyone places a higher value on money than lives,” Jack said, enraged at the accusation.
“Of course,” Lisa agreed, smiling dangerously. “You probably want him all for yourself. Has he said he loves you, Ianto? You don’t believe him, do you? You know I’m the only one who could ever love you. Really, I’m doing you a favor.” She raised her arm, aiming at Jack. There was nowhere to hide.
“No, he hasn’t,” Ianto whispered.
Jack saw the blue energy gather around Lisa’s wrist, and then he was staring at the stone statue of Ianto, between him and Lisa. “No!” he shouted, voice cracking. “Ianto!”
Two robots grabbed him from behind, dragging him out before Lisa. Another robot handed her a pickaxe, which she hefted as she stepped up to Ianto. Jack struggled against the robots, but he was unable to break their hold.
“You have displeased me for the last time,” she hissed, raising the axe.
Sirens began blaring and red lights flashed. Lisa spun around. “My machine!” she murmured, and then screamed. “My machine!”
She turned to Jack, eyes blazing with hatred. “This is all your fault.” She stormed toward him. “You will die knowing that your friends will suffer for this, and that I will reset Ianto’s brain to make him my perfect servant, just as he was before your interference!”
“You’ll never break him again,” Jack said defiantly. “He’s learned that there’s a world out there beyond you. You can’t make someone forget that.”
With a murderous shriek, Lisa drew the pickaxe over her head. Jack closed his eyes-
-and opened them again.
Lisa’s frozen stone statue stood before him, pickaxe halfway descended and face twisted with madness. Behind her, Ianto was gasping for air.
Jack pulled away from the robots, who had stalled out where they stood. He caught sight of Rose and the Doctor across the hall, Sonic Screwdriver still raised. “Cutting it a little close, eh Doc?” he said lightly, feeling the near-death adrenaline high kicking in.
He looked at Ianto and his grin melted away. His vision had clearly returned, because he was staring at Lisa in devastation. “Mistress,” he whimpered. He stumbled toward her and Jack caught him in a hug, bearing some of Ianto’s weight as he sobbed.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Jack whispered, holding him tightly while the Doctor and Rose approached, wearing matching sympathetic looks.
“I loved her,” Ianto said, sounding bewildered and distraught.
“I know you did,” Jack said back. “I know.”
“We should probably go to the Tardis,” Rose suggested quietly. She looked at the Doctor. “Before someone comes to investigate the alarms.”
The Doctor nodded and the party made their way out of the mansion and across the lawn to the Tardis.
Inside, Jack sat Ianto down on the couch. The young man had stopped crying and was looking around the console room in shock. “But… it’s bigger on the inside,” he said in confusion.
“I said I’d show you amazing things, didn’t I?”
Ianto nodded. “Yes, you did.”
The Tardis took off into the Vortex smoothly, for once, and the Doctor and Rose approached the two men. “Ianto,” the Doctor said kindly. “I’m the Doctor.” He stuck out his hand.
Still looking rather shell-shocked, Ianto took it. “Doctor who?” he asked.
“Just the Doctor. And I want to take you on a trip. We can go anywhere in the universe you like, even through time.”
Ianto’s eyes widened. “I don’t know anywhere that’s not on Transsexual.”
Rose stepped forward. “Or, you could stay here, with us. We’d love to have you. Wouldn’t we, Doctor?” she prompted her husband.
“Of course we would,” the Doctor agreed.
“I could stay with you?” Ianto said to Jack.
“If that’s what you want,” Jack replied.
“You said you cared about me. Do you want me to stay?”
Jack took a deep breath, trying to hold on to his emotions. “I want what’ll make you happy. I’d love for you to stay, but if you want to leave…”
“I want to stay with you,” Ianto said certainly, and kissed him.
Jack kissed him back for a moment, then broke it off. “Ianto, you don’t have to do that.”
“But I want to,” Ianto insisted fervently. “I- I care about you, Jack.”
Jack broke into a smile and practically shook with happiness. “Then you can stay!” he whispered.
“You know,” the Doctor commented as the moment drew out and Ianto and Jack seemed content to sit in each other’s arms, “the Tardis is a bit angry that she didn’t get to finish her nap. She wants us to go somewhere that’s sure to have no trouble for at least three days.”
Rose grinned. “Another honeymoon planet?”
The Doctor grinned back. “Just what I was thinking. What do you say, Jack?”
“Think you could handle it?” Rose teased.
Jack rolled his eyes.
“What’s a honeymoon?” Ianto asked, and Jack’s face softened.
“I’ll explain when we get there.”
And they all lived happily ever after.