Till the Moon Hath Taken Flight - 2/3
Title: Till the Moon Hath Taken Flight
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Owen, Tosh, Rhys, Rhiannon
Rating: PG-13
Beta: None due to time constraints - mistakes are all mine on this one
Summary: There is a secret buried within the files of Torchwood that Ianto Jones must keep hidden, one that could change everything.
A/N: Written for the jantocam June challenge. First fic I have finished in months. Liberal sprinklings of Welsh and Celtic Folklore abound. Meant to have the last two parts up last night, but livejournal wasn't cooperating. Hope you like it.
Chapter Two
It wasn’t long after their encounter with the Ellylldan that the team was facing a group of human monsters that made the faeries seem pedestrian by comparison.
“You should have seen him,” Tosh said as Owen patched Ianto up from their encounter. “Head-butted their leader straight to the floor so that I could get away,” she gushed as she took Ianto’s hand. “Thank you,” she whispered as he smiled shyly back, hoping she would see it as a mark of gratitude instead of a way of hiding his fear at having used the strength that he was not supposed to have.
Later that night after Jack had dropped him at his flat, Ianto stepped from a hard earned shower and wiped the steam from the mirror to inspect the damage. The cuts and bruises he had known, but it was the two beads missing from his necklace that caused his hands to shake. Reaching up he turned the fragile strand until the gaps were hidden at the back of his neck, promising himself to make those that remained last.
Switching off the light he padded naked towards his bed, stopping at his bedroom window to admire the full moon shining down over the sleeping denizens of Cardiff. Holding up his hand, he watched as the moonlight played across it, somehow not surprised as the battered skin mended itself and took on a subtle glow until the whole of him was gently illuminated in Arianrhod’s caress.
The next morning, Owen’s preoccupation with Gwen and their new affair severed as a welcome distraction from the fact that his broken ribs and split lip had healed overnight.
~~~~~~~~
The fourth bead was crushed scuffling with Owen over the key to the rift, and the fifth became a casualty of fighting off Saxon’s hit squad in the Himalayas. If anyone wondered how the avalanche that thundered through their base camp swept past the Torchwood team and pushed their attackers over the cliff, they didn’t voice their concerns. Ianto tried to mask his smile of satisfaction at their demise by whistling as he worked, ignoring the speculative glance Owen sent his way as he collected what was left of their things and called for an evac via the local branch of UNIT.
By the time Jack returned, it was becoming harder to hide what he was. He had started letting his hair grow a bit longer to hide the slight points that were now visible at the tips of his ears, and began wearing a variety of colors instead of the plain blue and black; not just because the colors appealed to him, but also to attribute the slight changes in his skin tone to his change in attire.
If Jack noticed any difference in the stamina, or more fae-like cast to the features of his lover, he never let on. Ianto decided that given his hatred of all things fae, it might be best to be a bit more careful, lest he end up in the cell beside Janet.
By the time he broke the sixth bead, this time as he took vengeance against the idiots who thought to sell the meat of a simple creature for profit, the wildness that lie within the heart of his people was brimming close to the surface, and he knew that it was only a matter of time before it must be released.
It was Jack's fawning over Gwen on her wedding day the finally pushed him over the edge. As soon as she ended their overly long hug goodbye, Ianto took a bewildered Jack by the hand and gave Rhys a cursory nod before leading his wayward lover into the garden behind the reception hall where he proceeded to take him with wanton abandon beneath the boughs of an ancient oak. No longer able to contain his true nature, Ianto let his magic run wild and a vast array of camellias, primroses, tulips, violets, forget-me-nots, and zinnias burst into bloom around them as he claimed Jack for his own.
The next morning as the first strands of sunlight shone down through the leaves, Ianto traced a sign of protection on his sleeping lover's forehead before gently slipping from his arms to center himself and resume his more human guise before Jack awoke. But magic hung thick in the morning air as the titter of laughter amongst the trees announced he was not alone.
“Love is begun by time, and time qualifies the spark and fire of it,” quoted a weathered voice above him. Ianto looked up and saw the benevolent face of Derwen, the Oak Mother smiling down upon him. “You have been long from your homeland that you did not see me in the starlight,” she chastised as Ianto pushed himself up to kneel before her.
“My apologies, wise one,” he replied bending his head, hoping he had not offended her.
“Do not fret son of Eleri,” she replied as the wind blew through her branches. “But we must be brief for your lover soon wakes.”
Ianto glanced back and saw that Jack had shifted, but appeared to still be lost in slumber. “Do you know of my mother?” he hastened to ask while he still had time. “Rhiannon has told me, and I remember some of it but…” he trailed off.
The great tree creaked as she laughed. “Ah youth, so impatient,” she answered with a smile. “Dear Eleri lives,” she continued turning serious. “Though the Dark One has been vanquished, his minions remain, and the gateways remain closed.”
Ianto blinked back tears wishing he had Rhiannon with him to share in the news that their mother was alive.
“But how will I-” he started to ask, as he heard Jack groan in his sleep.
“When the champion falls, a heart of undying truth shall plant the seed of change,” Derwen’s voice whispered on the wind. “Then will the guardian be set free.” As the last word faded the tree gave a mighty shake, dropping an acorn from her boughs to land at his feet.
“Ianto?” Jack asked sleepily as Ianto closed his eyes and concentrated, hoping that he appeared as human as possible; knowing that kneeling naked before an oak tree in the middle of a garden that bloomed overnight was not to his best advantage. Feeling a warm hand caress his back, he took a deep breath and turned around.
“Good morning Jack,” he answered, pulling him close for a good morning kiss. “Did you sleep well?”
“Like Titania in her bower,” Jack replied with a grin. “And even though that is the only faerie story I actually like, I am really rather glad that neither of us woke up with a set of donkey ears.”
Ianto laughed at the reference as they gathered their clothes and started to dress.
“You’ve been holding out on me,” Jack commented as Ianto helped him slip on his coat. Ianto stilled, worried that somehow Jack had overheard him. But Jack quickly put his fears to rest. “Moonlight becomes you, Jones, Ianto Jones,” he said reaching up to stroke his cheek, before leaning in to give him a fond kiss. “But as much as I loved seeing your wilder side, sadly faerie time is over,” he added smirking as he plucked a strand of ivy from his hair. Ianto just stared back at him, unsure of how to reply.
“Well I’m famished,” Jack said patting his stomach. “Wonder if the inn’s got anything good for breakfast?”
Ianto laughed in relief at the change in subject. “Let’s find out shall we?” he said as they turned to go. They started across the lawn when suddenly he stopped and checked his pockets. “Forgot my mobile,” he said with a sheepish grin. “Why don’t you go on ahead and I’ll catch up.”
Jack shrugged and Ianto hurried back to the base of the oak to pick-up the acorn and place a hand against her bark as he whispered his thanks.
~~~~~~
Derwen’s warning was not without merit.
While The Night Traveler’s seemed at first to be kin to his kind, they had the essence of the shadow weavers, dark fae of old that fed on the life-force of others. Ianto gladly broke the seventh bead by bringing his power over the elements into play, turning the water nymph Pearl to dust, and obliterating the Ghostmaker and their kin. With a simple flick of the wrist he burned all traces of the film that had housed them before contacting the Cardiff preservation society to ensure that no other copies remained. The lone boy who had survived them was shoruded by a murky and unpleasant aura from his ordeal, and it brought tears to Ianto's eyes as he saw his fate. When the Ellylldan came to claim him, he glady stepped aside, hoping that somewhere in the lost lands he might find peace.
The return of Captain John Hart brought Ianto to the brink, and after the man left and they had laid Tosh and Owen to rest, he made a point of taking to the winds to find him. After scaring the hardened conman within an inch of his life, he put a geis on the former time agent that no shelter would harbor him, no drink would warm his belly, nor would another warm his bed, until he saved a man beyond saving, gave water to a world made of sand, and fathered a son with no mother.
Hart for his part had decided that the Welsh were one race he would endeavor to never cross again.
Later that evening as he returned to the roof of the millennium center in a swirl of rose petals, Ianto felt a sense of satisfaction as the eighth bead fell and crumbled at his feet. As the petals scattered on the wind and he made his way towards where Jack brooded on the other side, a sense of peace washed over him. For the first time in his life, he was no longer afraid of who and what he was; the presence of the final bead of protection was no longer threat, but a promise of things to come.
~~~~~~
July 2009
Standing alongside Jack before the 456, Ianto knew that he could hide no longer.
Rhiannon had taken a chance and removed her necklace when he visited her earlier that week, and they were both surprised at at how little her appearance changed. They realized that with each decision she had made to live a human life and keep her magic hidden, the magic of the necklace had slowly begun to fade until she was almost human herself. Only the luminous blue eyes that were a mirror of her brother’s and the abundance of out of season flowers in her back garden gave any implication of her true heritage, and later that afternoon as the two of them worked alongside Mica and Daffyd to plant the starts for her fall vegetable garden, she found she wasn't sorry.
“Take it,” she had insisted placing her necklace into his hands when Ianto had shown her the solitary bead that remained on his own. “There isn’t much magic left, but with the things you face, I would rather you had whatever small protection that is mine to give.
Ianto had protested, until she threatened to make him take it, and the two had broken down into a fit of giggles, neither of them noticing the soft glow of happiness that had caused the Myrtle tree by the front door to grow and bloom until it covered half of the house within the protective shroud of it’s branches.
Now as he stood before those who would steal the Earth’s children, he knew she had been right. Feeling the steady pulse of the love they shared empowering the magic within Rhiannon’s necklace, he slipped it from his pocket, closing his fist around it as he prepared to make his stand. Shots had been fired and Jack had tried every attempt at bargaining with them to release their hold on the children. The 456 had countered by releasing a virus into the building, and as the wrongness of it pressed against his senses, he knew he could wait no longer.
It was time.
“No,” Ianto said calmly as he turned to shoot the camera on the other side of the room to interrupt it's feed before dropping his gun.
“We do not understand,” the 456 responded.
“Ianto?” Jack asked, seeing the look of determination on his lover’s face.
“I said no,” Ianto repeated, reaching up to pull his own necklace out from beneath his shirt before tugging on the remaining beed until it broke free and fell into his hand. “You will not have them,” he vowed. “This ends now.”
As the toggles of the broken necklace bounced onto the ground and became pieces of twig once more, Jack gasped and Ianto knew that he was no longer hidden. Clasping his hands together he called on the magic that was his birthright and channeled it into a ball of molten fire, throwing it towards the creature before him, burning both it and the tank housing it to ash. Satisfied that the immediate threat was destroyed, he raised both hands to the sky, blasting a hole through the ceiling of Thames House as he sent a wave of wild and untamed magic directly at the 456’s ship, trying not to laugh in glee as the parasitic race was ripped from the fabric of time and their ashes spread across the cosmos.
As he released the last of the power he fell to his knees, struggling to breathe even as the bricks reformed to seal the hole he had made in the ceiling.
“Ianto?” Jack asked as he fell to the floor.
“Sorry, Sir,” he apologized as he struggled to push himself up. “I don’t think I am immune to whatever hell the 456 unleashed,” he said as he began to cough. Jack gathered him into his arms and fought against the weakness overtaking his own limbs as held the one man he always seemed to underestimate.
“So I take it I didn’t dream you talking to a tree after Gwen’s wedding then?” he asked, causing Ianto to swear under his breath as he coughed again. “Ianto?” he asked. “Come on, surely the fae can beat a little virus?” he asked hoping he was right.
“Twylyth Teg you twypsyn,” Ianto chastised. “Never did learn Welsh, did you Jack?”
Jack laughed and as Ianto’s eyes began to close it turned into a sob. “No, no, no, you don’t,” he said shaking Ianto until he looked up at him tiredly.
“I love you, you know,” Ianto said looking at him in wonder. “Roses for love…,” he added with a whisper as he slipped away.
Jack let out a wail of despair and leaned down to give Ianto one last kiss as the virus took hold and he followed him into the black.
Chapter Three
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Owen, Tosh, Rhys, Rhiannon
Rating: PG-13
Beta: None due to time constraints - mistakes are all mine on this one
Summary: There is a secret buried within the files of Torchwood that Ianto Jones must keep hidden, one that could change everything.
A/N: Written for the jantocam June challenge. First fic I have finished in months. Liberal sprinklings of Welsh and Celtic Folklore abound. Meant to have the last two parts up last night, but livejournal wasn't cooperating. Hope you like it.
Chapter Two
It wasn’t long after their encounter with the Ellylldan that the team was facing a group of human monsters that made the faeries seem pedestrian by comparison.
“You should have seen him,” Tosh said as Owen patched Ianto up from their encounter. “Head-butted their leader straight to the floor so that I could get away,” she gushed as she took Ianto’s hand. “Thank you,” she whispered as he smiled shyly back, hoping she would see it as a mark of gratitude instead of a way of hiding his fear at having used the strength that he was not supposed to have.
Later that night after Jack had dropped him at his flat, Ianto stepped from a hard earned shower and wiped the steam from the mirror to inspect the damage. The cuts and bruises he had known, but it was the two beads missing from his necklace that caused his hands to shake. Reaching up he turned the fragile strand until the gaps were hidden at the back of his neck, promising himself to make those that remained last.
Switching off the light he padded naked towards his bed, stopping at his bedroom window to admire the full moon shining down over the sleeping denizens of Cardiff. Holding up his hand, he watched as the moonlight played across it, somehow not surprised as the battered skin mended itself and took on a subtle glow until the whole of him was gently illuminated in Arianrhod’s caress.
The next morning, Owen’s preoccupation with Gwen and their new affair severed as a welcome distraction from the fact that his broken ribs and split lip had healed overnight.
~~~~~~~~
The fourth bead was crushed scuffling with Owen over the key to the rift, and the fifth became a casualty of fighting off Saxon’s hit squad in the Himalayas. If anyone wondered how the avalanche that thundered through their base camp swept past the Torchwood team and pushed their attackers over the cliff, they didn’t voice their concerns. Ianto tried to mask his smile of satisfaction at their demise by whistling as he worked, ignoring the speculative glance Owen sent his way as he collected what was left of their things and called for an evac via the local branch of UNIT.
By the time Jack returned, it was becoming harder to hide what he was. He had started letting his hair grow a bit longer to hide the slight points that were now visible at the tips of his ears, and began wearing a variety of colors instead of the plain blue and black; not just because the colors appealed to him, but also to attribute the slight changes in his skin tone to his change in attire.
If Jack noticed any difference in the stamina, or more fae-like cast to the features of his lover, he never let on. Ianto decided that given his hatred of all things fae, it might be best to be a bit more careful, lest he end up in the cell beside Janet.
By the time he broke the sixth bead, this time as he took vengeance against the idiots who thought to sell the meat of a simple creature for profit, the wildness that lie within the heart of his people was brimming close to the surface, and he knew that it was only a matter of time before it must be released.
It was Jack's fawning over Gwen on her wedding day the finally pushed him over the edge. As soon as she ended their overly long hug goodbye, Ianto took a bewildered Jack by the hand and gave Rhys a cursory nod before leading his wayward lover into the garden behind the reception hall where he proceeded to take him with wanton abandon beneath the boughs of an ancient oak. No longer able to contain his true nature, Ianto let his magic run wild and a vast array of camellias, primroses, tulips, violets, forget-me-nots, and zinnias burst into bloom around them as he claimed Jack for his own.
The next morning as the first strands of sunlight shone down through the leaves, Ianto traced a sign of protection on his sleeping lover's forehead before gently slipping from his arms to center himself and resume his more human guise before Jack awoke. But magic hung thick in the morning air as the titter of laughter amongst the trees announced he was not alone.
“Love is begun by time, and time qualifies the spark and fire of it,” quoted a weathered voice above him. Ianto looked up and saw the benevolent face of Derwen, the Oak Mother smiling down upon him. “You have been long from your homeland that you did not see me in the starlight,” she chastised as Ianto pushed himself up to kneel before her.
“My apologies, wise one,” he replied bending his head, hoping he had not offended her.
“Do not fret son of Eleri,” she replied as the wind blew through her branches. “But we must be brief for your lover soon wakes.”
Ianto glanced back and saw that Jack had shifted, but appeared to still be lost in slumber. “Do you know of my mother?” he hastened to ask while he still had time. “Rhiannon has told me, and I remember some of it but…” he trailed off.
The great tree creaked as she laughed. “Ah youth, so impatient,” she answered with a smile. “Dear Eleri lives,” she continued turning serious. “Though the Dark One has been vanquished, his minions remain, and the gateways remain closed.”
Ianto blinked back tears wishing he had Rhiannon with him to share in the news that their mother was alive.
“But how will I-” he started to ask, as he heard Jack groan in his sleep.
“When the champion falls, a heart of undying truth shall plant the seed of change,” Derwen’s voice whispered on the wind. “Then will the guardian be set free.” As the last word faded the tree gave a mighty shake, dropping an acorn from her boughs to land at his feet.
“Ianto?” Jack asked sleepily as Ianto closed his eyes and concentrated, hoping that he appeared as human as possible; knowing that kneeling naked before an oak tree in the middle of a garden that bloomed overnight was not to his best advantage. Feeling a warm hand caress his back, he took a deep breath and turned around.
“Good morning Jack,” he answered, pulling him close for a good morning kiss. “Did you sleep well?”
“Like Titania in her bower,” Jack replied with a grin. “And even though that is the only faerie story I actually like, I am really rather glad that neither of us woke up with a set of donkey ears.”
Ianto laughed at the reference as they gathered their clothes and started to dress.
“You’ve been holding out on me,” Jack commented as Ianto helped him slip on his coat. Ianto stilled, worried that somehow Jack had overheard him. But Jack quickly put his fears to rest. “Moonlight becomes you, Jones, Ianto Jones,” he said reaching up to stroke his cheek, before leaning in to give him a fond kiss. “But as much as I loved seeing your wilder side, sadly faerie time is over,” he added smirking as he plucked a strand of ivy from his hair. Ianto just stared back at him, unsure of how to reply.
“Well I’m famished,” Jack said patting his stomach. “Wonder if the inn’s got anything good for breakfast?”
Ianto laughed in relief at the change in subject. “Let’s find out shall we?” he said as they turned to go. They started across the lawn when suddenly he stopped and checked his pockets. “Forgot my mobile,” he said with a sheepish grin. “Why don’t you go on ahead and I’ll catch up.”
Jack shrugged and Ianto hurried back to the base of the oak to pick-up the acorn and place a hand against her bark as he whispered his thanks.
~~~~~~
Derwen’s warning was not without merit.
While The Night Traveler’s seemed at first to be kin to his kind, they had the essence of the shadow weavers, dark fae of old that fed on the life-force of others. Ianto gladly broke the seventh bead by bringing his power over the elements into play, turning the water nymph Pearl to dust, and obliterating the Ghostmaker and their kin. With a simple flick of the wrist he burned all traces of the film that had housed them before contacting the Cardiff preservation society to ensure that no other copies remained. The lone boy who had survived them was shoruded by a murky and unpleasant aura from his ordeal, and it brought tears to Ianto's eyes as he saw his fate. When the Ellylldan came to claim him, he glady stepped aside, hoping that somewhere in the lost lands he might find peace.
The return of Captain John Hart brought Ianto to the brink, and after the man left and they had laid Tosh and Owen to rest, he made a point of taking to the winds to find him. After scaring the hardened conman within an inch of his life, he put a geis on the former time agent that no shelter would harbor him, no drink would warm his belly, nor would another warm his bed, until he saved a man beyond saving, gave water to a world made of sand, and fathered a son with no mother.
Hart for his part had decided that the Welsh were one race he would endeavor to never cross again.
Later that evening as he returned to the roof of the millennium center in a swirl of rose petals, Ianto felt a sense of satisfaction as the eighth bead fell and crumbled at his feet. As the petals scattered on the wind and he made his way towards where Jack brooded on the other side, a sense of peace washed over him. For the first time in his life, he was no longer afraid of who and what he was; the presence of the final bead of protection was no longer threat, but a promise of things to come.
~~~~~~
July 2009
Standing alongside Jack before the 456, Ianto knew that he could hide no longer.
Rhiannon had taken a chance and removed her necklace when he visited her earlier that week, and they were both surprised at at how little her appearance changed. They realized that with each decision she had made to live a human life and keep her magic hidden, the magic of the necklace had slowly begun to fade until she was almost human herself. Only the luminous blue eyes that were a mirror of her brother’s and the abundance of out of season flowers in her back garden gave any implication of her true heritage, and later that afternoon as the two of them worked alongside Mica and Daffyd to plant the starts for her fall vegetable garden, she found she wasn't sorry.
“Take it,” she had insisted placing her necklace into his hands when Ianto had shown her the solitary bead that remained on his own. “There isn’t much magic left, but with the things you face, I would rather you had whatever small protection that is mine to give.
Ianto had protested, until she threatened to make him take it, and the two had broken down into a fit of giggles, neither of them noticing the soft glow of happiness that had caused the Myrtle tree by the front door to grow and bloom until it covered half of the house within the protective shroud of it’s branches.
Now as he stood before those who would steal the Earth’s children, he knew she had been right. Feeling the steady pulse of the love they shared empowering the magic within Rhiannon’s necklace, he slipped it from his pocket, closing his fist around it as he prepared to make his stand. Shots had been fired and Jack had tried every attempt at bargaining with them to release their hold on the children. The 456 had countered by releasing a virus into the building, and as the wrongness of it pressed against his senses, he knew he could wait no longer.
It was time.
“No,” Ianto said calmly as he turned to shoot the camera on the other side of the room to interrupt it's feed before dropping his gun.
“We do not understand,” the 456 responded.
“Ianto?” Jack asked, seeing the look of determination on his lover’s face.
“I said no,” Ianto repeated, reaching up to pull his own necklace out from beneath his shirt before tugging on the remaining beed until it broke free and fell into his hand. “You will not have them,” he vowed. “This ends now.”
As the toggles of the broken necklace bounced onto the ground and became pieces of twig once more, Jack gasped and Ianto knew that he was no longer hidden. Clasping his hands together he called on the magic that was his birthright and channeled it into a ball of molten fire, throwing it towards the creature before him, burning both it and the tank housing it to ash. Satisfied that the immediate threat was destroyed, he raised both hands to the sky, blasting a hole through the ceiling of Thames House as he sent a wave of wild and untamed magic directly at the 456’s ship, trying not to laugh in glee as the parasitic race was ripped from the fabric of time and their ashes spread across the cosmos.
As he released the last of the power he fell to his knees, struggling to breathe even as the bricks reformed to seal the hole he had made in the ceiling.
“Ianto?” Jack asked as he fell to the floor.
“Sorry, Sir,” he apologized as he struggled to push himself up. “I don’t think I am immune to whatever hell the 456 unleashed,” he said as he began to cough. Jack gathered him into his arms and fought against the weakness overtaking his own limbs as held the one man he always seemed to underestimate.
“So I take it I didn’t dream you talking to a tree after Gwen’s wedding then?” he asked, causing Ianto to swear under his breath as he coughed again. “Ianto?” he asked. “Come on, surely the fae can beat a little virus?” he asked hoping he was right.
“Twylyth Teg you twypsyn,” Ianto chastised. “Never did learn Welsh, did you Jack?”
Jack laughed and as Ianto’s eyes began to close it turned into a sob. “No, no, no, you don’t,” he said shaking Ianto until he looked up at him tiredly.
“I love you, you know,” Ianto said looking at him in wonder. “Roses for love…,” he added with a whisper as he slipped away.
Jack let out a wail of despair and leaned down to give Ianto one last kiss as the virus took hold and he followed him into the black.
Chapter Three