Ficlet: Facing The Devourer
Title: Facing The Devourer
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Abaddon.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: End of Days.
Summary: Jack confronts Abbadon, giving his life force to save the world.
Word Count: 481
Written For: My own prompt ‘Torchwood, Jack. He's pretty sure that he won't survive Abaddon, but there's no other choice,’ at
fic_promptly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
Abaddon, the Great Devourer, the bringer of death, is living up to his name. Many times taller than the tallest building in Cardiff, he stands astride the city, and everywhere his shadow touches, people are dropping like flies. It’s as if his shadow just sucks the life right out of them, they fall right where they stand, no chance to run or even cry out.
He has to be stopped, and the way Jack sees it, he’s the only one who might be able to do it. Maybe this is the reason he was brought back to life after the Daleks killed him, so he could be right here, right now, to take on a demon and save the world. For a creature that feeds on life, Jack is like an all you can eat buffet, but even for him, the man who can’t stay dead, this is going to be a challenge. Especially since he’s already come back from the dead once today and is still weak and in pain from that.
Gwen drives him to a patch of wasteland down by the water. She doesn’t want to leave him there alone, but he sends her away. This is his fight, he doesn’t want anyone else involved, can’t be responsible for more fatalities when the death toll is already so high.
“Bring in on!”
He’s defiant as he challenges the beast, getting his attention despite the vast difference in size between them. He’s like an ant challenging a dinosaur. Abaddon crosses the distance between them with ease, a looming, overpowering presence, and as his shadow falls over Jack, the Captain screams in pain and falls heavily to his knees, arms out-flung as his life force is ripped from him in an endless stream, flowing into the devourer, more and faster than it can handle.
The pain is worse than anything he’s experienced in his life, and for someone who’s died in just about every way imaginable, and a few that aren’t, that’s saying something. Jack’s pretty sure he’s not going to survive this; he’s got more life energy than anyone has a right to, but it can’t be inexhaustible. When it’s gone, it’s gone, and then it’ll be adios to Captain Jack Harkness, ex-Time Agent and leader of Torchwood Three.
But no matter what happens to him, he knows there was no other choice, and he’s made his peace with the universe. If this is going to be his last day of life, he’s going to make it count, because one life is a small price to pay for the billions who will get to go on living. He knows he’s far from perfect; he’s done a lot of bad things in the past, and in the future; perhaps this will balance the books, but even if it doesn’t, all that really matters is the lives he’s saving.
It’s enough.
The End