Ianto's Journey - Chapter 2
Title: Ianto’s Journey - Chapter 2
Author: Timelordshines
Characters: Ianto Jones, Lisa Hallet
Series Rating: 15
Words: 1479 / 25351
Spoilers: S1E4, S2E12, DW-S2E12, DW-S2E13
Disclaimer: Characters belong to RTD and the BBC - I’m just borrowing them.
Written for hc_bingo prompt "Forced to hurt Someone".
Start at the Prologue
Previous Chapter - Chapter 1
Ianto pushed on to the stairwell. Several people ran past him, not stopping to give a second glance to the one solitary figure in a suit going the wrong way. All the other civilian Torchwood personnel were trying to escape. Only the military branch of UNIT and a few Torchwood field agents were brave or foolhardy enough to be going in. Ianto tried not to think about what they were going in to.
Progress was slow. Ianto kept to the shadows, ducking into doorways and under desks whenever he heard the unmistakeable sounds of Cybermen and prayed that he wouldn’t see a Dalek up close.
He pulled himself up from his latest hiding place as the Cyberman marched out of the door. He didn’t dare look at his watch and see how much time had passed since he spoke to Lisa. He didn’t want to imagine what was happening to her. He needed to hurry up but, he rationalised, he would be no good to her dead - it was better to be cautious. He hurried on through the maze of rooms and corridors.
As he reached the stairs, Ianto happened to glance out of the window.
“Holy shit!” he breathed, his eyes and jaw gaping wide as he almost failed to comprehend the spectacle he could see outside the window. There were hundreds of Cybermen converging on the building from every direction and they were all looking up. Ianto’s eyes were drawn to follow the line of their gazes and their weapons and he saw what they were shooting at. In the skies above Canary Wharf thousands of Daleks were swarming like angry bees.
Ianto stood and watched for a moment, mesmerised. Then he remembered to breathe.
“Lisa.” His mind provided him with his current raison d’etre . He had to find Lisa.
He took a breath and opened the door to the stairs. Twelve flights and nowhere to hide. He looked up, and then down. The stairs were mercifully free of Cybermen. All outside fighting the Daleks, Ianto guessed. Not a comforting thought and one that he pushed firmly to the back of his mind to worry about after he found Lisa.
He took the stairs two at a time, then paused to listen before opening the door to the fourteenth floor.
As he stepped out into the corridor he found himself staggering back against the wall as the building shook and the sound of breaking glass was almost deafening. Remaining in a half crouch Ianto crept forward, unsure of what he would find around the next corner. What he did see was not at all what he would have expected. A Cyberman flying down the corridor as if being sucked out of the window by some giant industrial vacuum cleaner. Stunned, Ianto watched as it was pulled out of the window, clutching briefly, desperately, at the frame, before joining the stream of other Cybermen going up the side of the building from the street below. Ianto couldn’t help himself. First checking that the coast was clear, he peered out of the window and up to see Cybermen and Daleks alike streaming into the window in one of the upper floors of the building.
Ianto had no idea what was happening, but he didn‘t have time to think about it. He needed to find Lisa. Turning back down the corridor he was almost bowled over by two hysterical women half running, half staggering for the stairwell. He was in the right place. “Hey!” he called after them, “Lisa? Have you seen Lisa Hallet?” they didn’t answer, but Ianto pushed open the door they had come from and stepped inside.
Ianto retched. The stench of blood was over powering. It was like he had walked into a cross between a torture chamber, an abattoir and a science fiction movie. The noise was something that he would never forget. The screams, both male and female, chilled him to the bone. Ianto forced himself to move forwards towards the big metal tables in the centre of the room.
“Lisa,” Ianto wailed as he recognised the once beautiful form of his girlfriend now half hidden in metal casing, strapped to some weird futuristic operating table. She wasn’t one of the ones screaming, but she was quietly whimpering, the pain beyond screams, despair and resignation in her features. “I’m so sorry Lisa” tears rolled unchecked down Ianto’s face as he approached her side, and reached out a shaking hand to touch her cheek.
Her eyelids fluttered open. “Ianto?” Lisa croaked.
He quickly took stock of the situation. The Daleks and Cybermen had gone, sucked into the void, but the building was unstable, the battle that had raged there shaking it to its very foundations. And who knew if all of the aliens had gone, or if they might come back. It wasn’t safe to stay there. He had to get them out.
Ianto’s hand hovered over Lisa’s ravaged body. He wanted to hold her, to reassure her by touch, but the flesh he could see was broken and torn, he didn’t want to hurt her further. And there was metal everywhere. So much metal, so much blood.
“Lisa?” Ianto spoke softly. She looked up at him with dull expressionless eyes. Shock, Ianto told himself. “Lisa, I have to get you out of here, ok?”
“Ok…” she agreed weekly.
Ianto assessed Lisa’s condition trying to take an emotional step back and look at her objectively. There were metal restraints holding her arms, legs and neck down, making sure she couldn’t move. There were metal implants everywhere, some seemed to be attached just to her skin, a form of strengthening armour, but others were placed over vital organs, presumably ‘upgrading’ them. Ianto didn’t want to think about that.
When the machine had stopped one metal implant was poised above her ready to be installed and some sort of surgical implement was buried into her side. He was going to have to pull that free.
“I’m sorry,” Ianto said biting his lip to stop the sob that threatened to escape, “this is going to hurt.”
“I know. It’s ok.” She offered him a small smile that gave him strength.
Ianto bent down and kissed his girlfriend on the lips. Pulling back he took a deep breath, bit his lip and wrapped one hand around the metal arm at the top of the sharp implement, the other hand he spread over Lisa’s side to help guide his movements.
Ianto pulled. The blade didn’t seem to want to move. Lisa whimpered in pain, obviously trying not to make a noise, not wanting to distress him.
He gripped it harder and pulled. The soft plop it made as it came free was sickening.
Ianto struggled to breathe, trying desperately to blank his mind and let the fight or flight instinct of the adrenaline coursing through his system take over. He touched a hand to Lisa’s face and looked into her eyes. “We’ve got to move, can you do this?”
“Yeah…” she winced.
Ianto took hold of his girlfriend and pulled her to a sitting position. Then he got his hands under her arms and half carried half dragged her from the room as her screams joined the cacophony of noise and Ianto’s own sobs sounded in counterpoint.
Out in the hallway Ianto forced himself to stop and think and ran through his options in his head. They would never make it down all those stairs - he was going to have to chance the lift. The Cybermen all seemed to have gone, for now, so he mentally crossed his fingers and pressed the button. Amazingly the lift appeared and Ianto’s heart stopped as the doors slid open. It was empty. Safe. He dragged Lisa in, hitting the button for the car park.
“Ok Lisa?” he asked, not sure that he wanted to hear the answer. She was weakened and in agony and he was hurting her even more. But it wasn’t safe to stay there. They had to get out.
Ianto thanked his lucky stars that he had been in work early that morning and had managed to park his car close to the lift. It was just one small piece of luck in what was the worst day of his life, but right now it was all he needed. He helped Lisa into the passenger seat, earning another pained whimper, then hurried around to the driver’s side. He roughly wiped his eyes and as he turned the key in the ignition Lisa put her hand on his arm, “Thank you Ianto.”
A tear rolled down Ianto’s cheek, “I’m sorry Lise, I don’t want to hurt you any more,”
“Take me home Ianto?” she asked in a small voice and Ianto readily complied, the single car pulling out of the car park going unnoticed in the chaos of Canary Wharf.
On to Chapter 3
Author: Timelordshines
Characters: Ianto Jones, Lisa Hallet
Series Rating: 15
Words: 1479 / 25351
Spoilers: S1E4, S2E12, DW-S2E12, DW-S2E13
Disclaimer: Characters belong to RTD and the BBC - I’m just borrowing them.
Written for hc_bingo prompt "Forced to hurt Someone".
Start at the Prologue
Previous Chapter - Chapter 1
Ianto pushed on to the stairwell. Several people ran past him, not stopping to give a second glance to the one solitary figure in a suit going the wrong way. All the other civilian Torchwood personnel were trying to escape. Only the military branch of UNIT and a few Torchwood field agents were brave or foolhardy enough to be going in. Ianto tried not to think about what they were going in to.
Progress was slow. Ianto kept to the shadows, ducking into doorways and under desks whenever he heard the unmistakeable sounds of Cybermen and prayed that he wouldn’t see a Dalek up close.
He pulled himself up from his latest hiding place as the Cyberman marched out of the door. He didn’t dare look at his watch and see how much time had passed since he spoke to Lisa. He didn’t want to imagine what was happening to her. He needed to hurry up but, he rationalised, he would be no good to her dead - it was better to be cautious. He hurried on through the maze of rooms and corridors.
As he reached the stairs, Ianto happened to glance out of the window.
“Holy shit!” he breathed, his eyes and jaw gaping wide as he almost failed to comprehend the spectacle he could see outside the window. There were hundreds of Cybermen converging on the building from every direction and they were all looking up. Ianto’s eyes were drawn to follow the line of their gazes and their weapons and he saw what they were shooting at. In the skies above Canary Wharf thousands of Daleks were swarming like angry bees.
Ianto stood and watched for a moment, mesmerised. Then he remembered to breathe.
“Lisa.” His mind provided him with his current raison d’etre . He had to find Lisa.
He took a breath and opened the door to the stairs. Twelve flights and nowhere to hide. He looked up, and then down. The stairs were mercifully free of Cybermen. All outside fighting the Daleks, Ianto guessed. Not a comforting thought and one that he pushed firmly to the back of his mind to worry about after he found Lisa.
He took the stairs two at a time, then paused to listen before opening the door to the fourteenth floor.
As he stepped out into the corridor he found himself staggering back against the wall as the building shook and the sound of breaking glass was almost deafening. Remaining in a half crouch Ianto crept forward, unsure of what he would find around the next corner. What he did see was not at all what he would have expected. A Cyberman flying down the corridor as if being sucked out of the window by some giant industrial vacuum cleaner. Stunned, Ianto watched as it was pulled out of the window, clutching briefly, desperately, at the frame, before joining the stream of other Cybermen going up the side of the building from the street below. Ianto couldn’t help himself. First checking that the coast was clear, he peered out of the window and up to see Cybermen and Daleks alike streaming into the window in one of the upper floors of the building.
Ianto had no idea what was happening, but he didn‘t have time to think about it. He needed to find Lisa. Turning back down the corridor he was almost bowled over by two hysterical women half running, half staggering for the stairwell. He was in the right place. “Hey!” he called after them, “Lisa? Have you seen Lisa Hallet?” they didn’t answer, but Ianto pushed open the door they had come from and stepped inside.
Ianto retched. The stench of blood was over powering. It was like he had walked into a cross between a torture chamber, an abattoir and a science fiction movie. The noise was something that he would never forget. The screams, both male and female, chilled him to the bone. Ianto forced himself to move forwards towards the big metal tables in the centre of the room.
“Lisa,” Ianto wailed as he recognised the once beautiful form of his girlfriend now half hidden in metal casing, strapped to some weird futuristic operating table. She wasn’t one of the ones screaming, but she was quietly whimpering, the pain beyond screams, despair and resignation in her features. “I’m so sorry Lisa” tears rolled unchecked down Ianto’s face as he approached her side, and reached out a shaking hand to touch her cheek.
Her eyelids fluttered open. “Ianto?” Lisa croaked.
He quickly took stock of the situation. The Daleks and Cybermen had gone, sucked into the void, but the building was unstable, the battle that had raged there shaking it to its very foundations. And who knew if all of the aliens had gone, or if they might come back. It wasn’t safe to stay there. He had to get them out.
Ianto’s hand hovered over Lisa’s ravaged body. He wanted to hold her, to reassure her by touch, but the flesh he could see was broken and torn, he didn’t want to hurt her further. And there was metal everywhere. So much metal, so much blood.
“Lisa?” Ianto spoke softly. She looked up at him with dull expressionless eyes. Shock, Ianto told himself. “Lisa, I have to get you out of here, ok?”
“Ok…” she agreed weekly.
Ianto assessed Lisa’s condition trying to take an emotional step back and look at her objectively. There were metal restraints holding her arms, legs and neck down, making sure she couldn’t move. There were metal implants everywhere, some seemed to be attached just to her skin, a form of strengthening armour, but others were placed over vital organs, presumably ‘upgrading’ them. Ianto didn’t want to think about that.
When the machine had stopped one metal implant was poised above her ready to be installed and some sort of surgical implement was buried into her side. He was going to have to pull that free.
“I’m sorry,” Ianto said biting his lip to stop the sob that threatened to escape, “this is going to hurt.”
“I know. It’s ok.” She offered him a small smile that gave him strength.
Ianto bent down and kissed his girlfriend on the lips. Pulling back he took a deep breath, bit his lip and wrapped one hand around the metal arm at the top of the sharp implement, the other hand he spread over Lisa’s side to help guide his movements.
Ianto pulled. The blade didn’t seem to want to move. Lisa whimpered in pain, obviously trying not to make a noise, not wanting to distress him.
He gripped it harder and pulled. The soft plop it made as it came free was sickening.
Ianto struggled to breathe, trying desperately to blank his mind and let the fight or flight instinct of the adrenaline coursing through his system take over. He touched a hand to Lisa’s face and looked into her eyes. “We’ve got to move, can you do this?”
“Yeah…” she winced.
Ianto took hold of his girlfriend and pulled her to a sitting position. Then he got his hands under her arms and half carried half dragged her from the room as her screams joined the cacophony of noise and Ianto’s own sobs sounded in counterpoint.
Out in the hallway Ianto forced himself to stop and think and ran through his options in his head. They would never make it down all those stairs - he was going to have to chance the lift. The Cybermen all seemed to have gone, for now, so he mentally crossed his fingers and pressed the button. Amazingly the lift appeared and Ianto’s heart stopped as the doors slid open. It was empty. Safe. He dragged Lisa in, hitting the button for the car park.
“Ok Lisa?” he asked, not sure that he wanted to hear the answer. She was weakened and in agony and he was hurting her even more. But it wasn’t safe to stay there. They had to get out.
Ianto thanked his lucky stars that he had been in work early that morning and had managed to park his car close to the lift. It was just one small piece of luck in what was the worst day of his life, but right now it was all he needed. He helped Lisa into the passenger seat, earning another pained whimper, then hurried around to the driver’s side. He roughly wiped his eyes and as he turned the key in the ignition Lisa put her hand on his arm, “Thank you Ianto.”
A tear rolled down Ianto’s cheek, “I’m sorry Lise, I don’t want to hurt you any more,”
“Take me home Ianto?” she asked in a small voice and Ianto readily complied, the single car pulling out of the car park going unnoticed in the chaos of Canary Wharf.
On to Chapter 3