4 Children of Earth fix it fic ideas
Why is it that I seem to have all the plot bunnies in the world and no time to write them?
1. Convergence. - A CoE fix it - yes this plot bunny is still lurking and won't go away, so some of you might have seen me post about it before.
The damage that the explosion in the Hub had done to the Rift hadn't been immediately obvious. Life had been too chaotic and fragmented, the long days after fighting for survival occupied with grief and a need to rebuild.
The realisation she's no longer in the same Cardiff where she grew up occurs to Gwen slowly over the following months. It's small things like a café that she was sure was there isn't, her cousin Davy insisting that he's never smoked, it's Rhys' mother taking painting courses, or a favourite pop song that seems to have never been written.
Nothing on its own is big enough to say that anything is out of place, but put together the sense of wrongness is too hard to ignore. The question is if this isn't her Cardiff, a Cardiff with no Jack, no Ianto and no Hub, then where is her Cardiff and how is she going to get back there.
Will feature Gwen using alien tech and either viewing or travelling to parallel Earths. It will also have the Doctor in it.
2. The Spaces in Between. CoE sort of fix it again with parallel worlds.
Post CoE Jack is off travelling when he picks up a signal on his vortex manipulator, he's trying to work out what it is when Ianto just appears. He's wearing Jack's vortex manipulator, which has been connected to addition parts in a backpack.
“The planets were all pulled out of alignment last year,” Ianto says distractedly as he presses a couple of buttons on the vortex manipulator. “You should know this. I doubt your Earth escaped.”
Jack shakes his head. “It didn't. But the Doctor fixed it.”
“Different world, same blind faith,” Ianto says bitterly.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean not all the Earths got towed back to their proper orbit. My world lost its Doctor years ago.”
“He's dead?” Jack asks, shocked. Even though it's not his Doctor it's still hard to hear.
“Turned his back on us.” Ianto is still trying to get something to work on the modified vortex manipulator.
“He wouldn't.” Jack hates the doubt in his voice, but after what happened with the 456 he's having a hard time convincing himself of it.
Ianto explains that the Hub went into lockdown. Him, Jack, Owen and Tosh were inside. Owen not a zombie - Ianto was shot in shoulder by the Pharm pushing Owen out of the way - Owen had thanked him, they joked it was the universes idea of some kind of payback for Ianto shooting Owen. Jack had used his teleport part of the vortex manipulator to get him out of Turnmill before the reactor failure. Tosh had been badly hurt when Gray shot her, and is currently in a wheelchair. Part of what Ianto is looking for is a more medically advanced world than his own.
The timelock on the Hub didn't deactivate, because the Earth now without an orbit stopped spinning. The world became a dead planet apart from them protected in their time bubble. When the power started to fail, Jack still clinging to the hope Doctor would come and save them, had used a piece of alien tech designed to transfer energy to transfer his energy into the Hub to keep the timelock functioning and them safe.
Ianto had had to watch helpless to help as his Jack slowly died, the life drained out of him. They'd been working on the modified vortex manipulator, when he'd died. They only have a little power left, Ianto had been to two other worlds - this is his last attempt, there is only enough power for him to return to them.
They need power to get Owen and Tosh through to this Earth. Only way to do it is Jack uses the last of the power to go through to them, and charge up the device. Jack arrives there, systems are failing. They modify the device running the energy transfer tech straight into it. They leave as the timelock fails. They arrive on Earth, Owen is holding Tosh. Jack collapses to the floor. Ianto scared that Jack is dead. Jack is alive just exhausted.
3. The Time Trap. (It might not get called this in the end)
Post CoE the Doctor finds Jack in a bar. The Doctor says he's come to get Ianto, it'll only before a couple of hours. He needs him for something to do with the Torchwood Archive, access to some kind of information.
Jack tells him he's too late, Ianto is dead. The Doctor is confused, says that Ianto can't be because he needs to set up the Torchwood archive in three years time. If Ianto was dead then the timeline would have compensated for it, somebody else would be listed as having founded the archive. Therefore in three years time Ianto has to be alive, so he can't be dead now.
Jack tells the Doctor about the 456 and what happened. The Doctor says that it was never supposed to happen, and the kind of aliens that breath the gas mix in the tank in Thames House are barely sentient, and not capable of organising what happened.
The reason the 456 (Doctor uses its really name) in the tank was so crazed was that something was controlling it. Jack mentions to the Doctor what happened with the 456 back in the 60's. The Doctor says that somebody is manipulating the timelines, playing a dangerous game.
The Doctor says he can't risk altering what Jack remembers, the timeline is unstable enough as it is. Asks if that means he won't save Ianto. The Doctor says of course not, he still got to be alive in three years time. What he'll do is place Ianto in suspended animation just before he dies, then just teleport him out of the cold storage where he's been put.
They do that. Jack and the Doctor watching from the shadows as past Jack hold Ianto in front of the 456 tank. The Doctor sees just how much Jack loves Ianto. Teleported in, Ianto revives on board the TARDIS.
It's Bilis Manger who's behind the manipulation of the timelines, and Dekker (which is why he survived the gas when nobody else did) is helping him. Bilis wants to stop the formation of the Torchwood archive (Which appears in DW episodes the Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit - the Ood in those episodes refer to the beast in the pit as Abbadon.) because if they hadn't been there the Doctor wouldn't have either. Dekker is helping Bilis because he thinks he's going to get power and influence out of it.
The Doctor realises that it's the stopping of Bilis that leads Ianto to form the Archives in the first place.
4. Echoes Made real. Fix it starting in the six months later portion of CoE, goes AU for the last scene in CoE as Ianto is there with Jack.
Jack, the Ghost Machine - which has been damaged in the explosion. Jack is going to leave Earth but wants to see his old team one last time.
The Hub shimmers around Jack, a transparent overlay of what once was onto the wreckage of what now remains. Memories good, bad and indifferent of the men and women who had worked there and given their lives for Torchwood bound forever within the stones.
Clutched in his hand the ghost machine hums faintly, its lights pulsing like a heartbeat, despite the crack that now runs through it.
Jack's breath catches in his throat as amongst the drifting images, he finally sees what he’s been waiting for: his team.
The Ghost Machine is actually a experiment version of the technology used by the Remote (An alien species in the 8th Doctor novel Ancestor Cell who created clones and then imprinted them with that persons memory.)
The technology brings back a version of Ianto, but he's not the man Jack has lost, his memories are incomplete fragments, and the knowledge of how the technology works is almost more than he can bear.
There will be a happy, or at least hopeful, ending to this. This fic will be more than a little twisted in places, and is to some extent about the idea memories and experiences making us who we are, with some be careful what you wish for thrown in for good measure.
1. Convergence. - A CoE fix it - yes this plot bunny is still lurking and won't go away, so some of you might have seen me post about it before.
The damage that the explosion in the Hub had done to the Rift hadn't been immediately obvious. Life had been too chaotic and fragmented, the long days after fighting for survival occupied with grief and a need to rebuild.
The realisation she's no longer in the same Cardiff where she grew up occurs to Gwen slowly over the following months. It's small things like a café that she was sure was there isn't, her cousin Davy insisting that he's never smoked, it's Rhys' mother taking painting courses, or a favourite pop song that seems to have never been written.
Nothing on its own is big enough to say that anything is out of place, but put together the sense of wrongness is too hard to ignore. The question is if this isn't her Cardiff, a Cardiff with no Jack, no Ianto and no Hub, then where is her Cardiff and how is she going to get back there.
Will feature Gwen using alien tech and either viewing or travelling to parallel Earths. It will also have the Doctor in it.
2. The Spaces in Between. CoE sort of fix it again with parallel worlds.
Post CoE Jack is off travelling when he picks up a signal on his vortex manipulator, he's trying to work out what it is when Ianto just appears. He's wearing Jack's vortex manipulator, which has been connected to addition parts in a backpack.
“The planets were all pulled out of alignment last year,” Ianto says distractedly as he presses a couple of buttons on the vortex manipulator. “You should know this. I doubt your Earth escaped.”
Jack shakes his head. “It didn't. But the Doctor fixed it.”
“Different world, same blind faith,” Ianto says bitterly.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean not all the Earths got towed back to their proper orbit. My world lost its Doctor years ago.”
“He's dead?” Jack asks, shocked. Even though it's not his Doctor it's still hard to hear.
“Turned his back on us.” Ianto is still trying to get something to work on the modified vortex manipulator.
“He wouldn't.” Jack hates the doubt in his voice, but after what happened with the 456 he's having a hard time convincing himself of it.
Ianto explains that the Hub went into lockdown. Him, Jack, Owen and Tosh were inside. Owen not a zombie - Ianto was shot in shoulder by the Pharm pushing Owen out of the way - Owen had thanked him, they joked it was the universes idea of some kind of payback for Ianto shooting Owen. Jack had used his teleport part of the vortex manipulator to get him out of Turnmill before the reactor failure. Tosh had been badly hurt when Gray shot her, and is currently in a wheelchair. Part of what Ianto is looking for is a more medically advanced world than his own.
The timelock on the Hub didn't deactivate, because the Earth now without an orbit stopped spinning. The world became a dead planet apart from them protected in their time bubble. When the power started to fail, Jack still clinging to the hope Doctor would come and save them, had used a piece of alien tech designed to transfer energy to transfer his energy into the Hub to keep the timelock functioning and them safe.
Ianto had had to watch helpless to help as his Jack slowly died, the life drained out of him. They'd been working on the modified vortex manipulator, when he'd died. They only have a little power left, Ianto had been to two other worlds - this is his last attempt, there is only enough power for him to return to them.
They need power to get Owen and Tosh through to this Earth. Only way to do it is Jack uses the last of the power to go through to them, and charge up the device. Jack arrives there, systems are failing. They modify the device running the energy transfer tech straight into it. They leave as the timelock fails. They arrive on Earth, Owen is holding Tosh. Jack collapses to the floor. Ianto scared that Jack is dead. Jack is alive just exhausted.
3. The Time Trap. (It might not get called this in the end)
Post CoE the Doctor finds Jack in a bar. The Doctor says he's come to get Ianto, it'll only before a couple of hours. He needs him for something to do with the Torchwood Archive, access to some kind of information.
Jack tells him he's too late, Ianto is dead. The Doctor is confused, says that Ianto can't be because he needs to set up the Torchwood archive in three years time. If Ianto was dead then the timeline would have compensated for it, somebody else would be listed as having founded the archive. Therefore in three years time Ianto has to be alive, so he can't be dead now.
Jack tells the Doctor about the 456 and what happened. The Doctor says that it was never supposed to happen, and the kind of aliens that breath the gas mix in the tank in Thames House are barely sentient, and not capable of organising what happened.
The reason the 456 (Doctor uses its really name) in the tank was so crazed was that something was controlling it. Jack mentions to the Doctor what happened with the 456 back in the 60's. The Doctor says that somebody is manipulating the timelines, playing a dangerous game.
The Doctor says he can't risk altering what Jack remembers, the timeline is unstable enough as it is. Asks if that means he won't save Ianto. The Doctor says of course not, he still got to be alive in three years time. What he'll do is place Ianto in suspended animation just before he dies, then just teleport him out of the cold storage where he's been put.
They do that. Jack and the Doctor watching from the shadows as past Jack hold Ianto in front of the 456 tank. The Doctor sees just how much Jack loves Ianto. Teleported in, Ianto revives on board the TARDIS.
It's Bilis Manger who's behind the manipulation of the timelines, and Dekker (which is why he survived the gas when nobody else did) is helping him. Bilis wants to stop the formation of the Torchwood archive (Which appears in DW episodes the Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit - the Ood in those episodes refer to the beast in the pit as Abbadon.) because if they hadn't been there the Doctor wouldn't have either. Dekker is helping Bilis because he thinks he's going to get power and influence out of it.
The Doctor realises that it's the stopping of Bilis that leads Ianto to form the Archives in the first place.
4. Echoes Made real. Fix it starting in the six months later portion of CoE, goes AU for the last scene in CoE as Ianto is there with Jack.
Jack, the Ghost Machine - which has been damaged in the explosion. Jack is going to leave Earth but wants to see his old team one last time.
The Hub shimmers around Jack, a transparent overlay of what once was onto the wreckage of what now remains. Memories good, bad and indifferent of the men and women who had worked there and given their lives for Torchwood bound forever within the stones.
Clutched in his hand the ghost machine hums faintly, its lights pulsing like a heartbeat, despite the crack that now runs through it.
Jack's breath catches in his throat as amongst the drifting images, he finally sees what he’s been waiting for: his team.
The Ghost Machine is actually a experiment version of the technology used by the Remote (An alien species in the 8th Doctor novel Ancestor Cell who created clones and then imprinted them with that persons memory.)
The technology brings back a version of Ianto, but he's not the man Jack has lost, his memories are incomplete fragments, and the knowledge of how the technology works is almost more than he can bear.
There will be a happy, or at least hopeful, ending to this. This fic will be more than a little twisted in places, and is to some extent about the idea memories and experiences making us who we are, with some be careful what you wish for thrown in for good measure.