FIC: Vampires, Demons and Torchwood, Oh My! (11b/?)
Name: Vampires, Demons and Torchwood, Oh my!
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Jack/Ianto, Spike/Buffy, Willow/Tosh, Xander/Anya, Martha, Owen, Faith, some minor OCs, other characters may follow later…
Summary: Sequel to Magic and Mayhem at the Rift. The Scoobie gang, now fully integrated into the Torchwood group and settled in to their new lives, discover there’s more coming through the rift than the odd demon and alien. This story is set post Exit Wounds, so there are minor spoilers. However, I have major problems with Exit Wounds and, as such, only some of the storyline happened (same goes for Reset which, although it happened, did not end like it did in the series in my head. Dead Man Walking and A Day in the Death DID NOT HAPPEN. I’m in my happy place now ...). Episodes like Adrift, Something Borrowed and Out of the Rain did happen, though (Like I said before: happy place) and may be referred to or even flash-backed to from time to time.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood or Buffy the Vampire Slayer … I do however own the cracked story idea - and proud of it, thankyouverymuch! I don’t own the title of this story either, however, that was thought up by the wonderful ickle18(I say wonderful because anyone who can come up with this title must be), the daughter of missthingsplace THANK YOU!
My other stories and links to the chapters of Magic and Mayhem (and Vampires, Demons and Torchwood) can be found here, at my master list.
So it grew again. I was this close *holds up fingers a tiny bit apart* from splitting it into A, B and C! But I didn't. Instead I just let it expand again.
Oh, and break out the champagne - the story just hit 100,000 words! :D
I was aiming for humour with this chapter leading up to the next one ... which won't be humour.
This chapter is for
missthingsplace who wanted more and had to repress the urge to slap me for not posting often enough. :)
Previous chapters: Ch.1, Ch. 2 Ch.3 Ch.4 Ch.5 Ch.6 Ch.7 Ch.8 Ch.9 Ch.10 Ch.11a
Chapter 11: Ianto's Friday - Part B
Friday 8th August
13:29
When Buffy, Ianto, Tosh and Libby arrived at the alien sighting they piled out of the SUV and looked around.
“I don’t see it, do you?” Buffy said, scouring the streets.
“Nope,” Ianto replied. “But it was a good excuse to use the SUV. It doesn’t get used enough anymore.”
“It’s more comfortable than the minivan,” Tosh commented.
“So much for seeing an alien,” Libby huffed.
“Maybe it was a hoax,” Buffy suggested, ignoring her.
“Did you say hoix?” Ianto quizzed.
“Hoax,” Buffy said. She raised an eyebrow. “What the hell is a hoix?”
Ianto scratched his neck. “It doesn’t matter.” There was a noise in a nearby alleyway and he drew his gun. Buffy drew her axe at the same time and Tosh pulled out her own gun.
Buffy raised a hand for silence, held up her axe and approached, waving her hand to signal Ianto and Tosh to follow her. Ianto turned to Libby and pointed at the ground with a stern expression and mouthed ‘stay here’.
Libby rolled her eyes and mouthed in return ‘yeah right’ as she followed them into the alleyway, much to Ianto’s annoyance. As they got into the alleyway, they heard a crash, signifying that Buffy had, once again, gotten herself into a fight. Tosh leapt into action, running towards the disturbance while Ianto spared a second to glare at his sister before running down the alleyway after Tosh. Libby hung back only slightly, realising her presence could only hinder him and quite possibly risk his life.
The alleyway was shaded from the sun and was cooler than the rest of the city, Ianto was glad to discover as they followed the sound of fighting. They arrived at a dead end, where Buffy was stood in a defensive posture before a scared-looking blowfish holding a large truncheon.
“Nice of you to join us,” Buffy said, sarcastically, to Ianto, who raised his gun at the blowfish.
“I just want to go home!” the blowfish cried.
Libby walked around behind Ianto and poked her head out from around his back. “It’s just a kid,” she said, quietly.
“A kid that tried to beat me up!” Buffy snapped.
The blowfish dropped the truncheon. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone!”
Buffy sighed and lowered her axe. “We can’t send you back,” she said. “The rift only works one way. Right, Ianto?”
Ianto scratched his neck nervously. “Uh …yeah.” They all knew the truth thanks to Gwen and her one-woman mission to uncover all Jack’s secrets one at a time, but had agreed to keep the secret so that the aliens wouldn’t think they could be sent back.
After all, they couldn’t. If the aliens could be sent back, Buffy and her gang would have been sent back, themselves, long ago. Not that they wanted rid of the scoobies, not by any means. In fact, the Torchwood gang had become pleasantly used to their noisy presence around the hub to the point that their absence would devastate a lot of them.
The blowfish sniffed, noisily. “What are you going to do with me then?” he asked.
Ianto looked, helplessly, at Buffy, who was looking at him with the same level of helplessness in her eyes. Libby looked at Ianto with pleading eyes. “He’s just a kid,” she said.
Ianto rolled his eyes. “Since when did you become Gwen?” he enquired. She raised an eyebrow at him, not following the conversation, as Buffy started to giggle into her hand. Ianto smirked at her, glad someone got and enjoyed his humour.
Buffy walked over to him. “We could just let him go,” she suggested. “Ask him to keep to the shadows and avoid being out in public. He wasn’t reported as doing any harm … just existing.”
Ianto looked over at the kid, who was looking pretty pathetic and helpless. He could almost hear Jack’s voice in his head, telling him that letting the blowfish go would only cause trouble. He mentally stamped on Jack and turned to Buffy. “I don’t see how letting him go would hurt. Do you, Tosh?”
Tosh shrugged from nearby. “I suppose not. As long as we warn him not to cause trouble.”
Buffy nodded and turned back to Ianto. “Do you want to play diplomat or shall I?” she asked.
“Well, you’re the leader,” Ianto replied, with a grin.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Wimp,” she accused, walking across to the blowfish to discuss the terms of letting him loose.
Ianto leaned against the alleyway wall while Libby continued to stare at the blowfish. “Are all the aliens so … alien?” she asked.
Ianto shrugged. “Varies,” he said. “There’s this one alien that looks just like us but has two hearts and no sex drive according to Jack. Then again, Jack says anything that rejects him has no sex drive.”
Libby turned and blinked at Ianto. “Jack shags aliens?” she enquires.
Ianto glanced across at Tosh for a moment. “We all do,” he said, with a grin. “But Jack more than most. He’s omnisexual … likes anything with a postcode.”
“Aliens have postcodes?”
Ianto raised an eyebrow at her. “It was a metaphor.”
“Oh.” Libby watched the blowfish cowering from a very irritated looking Buffy for a minute before looking at Ianto. “Ever shagged an alien?”
Ianto gaped at her. “Libby!” he scolded.
“Oh come on, it’s not like you never asked about my sex life,” she accused.
“You were seventeen and I was concerned!” Ianto retorted. “It wasn’t like you were doing anything, though. Right?”
Libby blushed.
“Libby!” Ianto exclaimed, shocked. “You told me you weren’t!”
“Like you’ve never lied to me!” Libby snapped.
“Name a time!” Ianto challenged.
Libby put on her best Ianto-impersonation, even adopting the Welsh accent she always kept at bay. “‘Same old stuff every day, really. I hardly even go outside the door.’ Ring a bell?”
It was Ianto’s turn to blush. “Okay, fine. But you know I had to lie about that,” he argued. “It was part of my job.”
Libby sighed and walked around to lean against the wall next to Ianto. “I shouldn’t know.”
“Nope.”
“What are they going to do to me, Yan? What happens when someone finds out about Torchwood that shouldn’t?”
Ianto sighed, slipping an arm around his sister and holding her close. “They won’t harm you. I promise.”
“What will happen?”
“If Jack decides you shouldn’t know … and I’m going to fight him about this, don’t worry … then you’ll be RetCon’d.”
“Ret…what?”
“RetCon … it’s an amnesia pill. Makes you forget.” Ianto kissed her hair. “I don’t want you to forget, though. It’s nice to be able to tell you this stuff.”
“Does it hurt?”
Ianto looked round at her. Although she was only two years younger than him, she seemed, sometimes, so much younger. He wondered if it was only him she was like this around. “No,” he promised. “You just go to sleep and wake up forgetting about aliens and Torchwood.”
“I won’t forget you though, right?”
“Nah. I’m too normal to be forgotten,” Ianto replied, smirking. She thumped him on the arm for that.
“Idiot,” she accused.
He was about to retort and thus turn the conversation into an insult rally when Buffy came over. “All done,” she said. “Let’s go back to the hub.”
Ianto cast a look over at the blowfish, who, judging by the expression on his face, was scarred for life by something Buffy had said, then moved away from the wall. Libby followed suit and they walked back to where they had parked the SUV.
“Where’s the SUV gone?” Buffy enquired, calmly, noticing the completely empty road.
“How should I know?” Ianto replied.
“I can track it,” Tosh announced.
“Okay, where’s it gone?” Buffy asked as Libby called a cab. Buffy couldn’t help grudgingly noticing that the girl could think on her feet.
“North,” Tosh told them as they piled into the cab, Ianto, Libby and Buffy in the back and Tosh riding shotgun. Tosh turned to the cabdriver and gave him her most sexy, dazzling smile. “Drive where I tell you,” she commanded.
The driver nodded, dazedly. “Anything you say, sugar,” he replied, gruffly.
“Does she have special hypnotic powers?” Libby asked. At this point she was willing to believe anything. Buffy rolled her eyes.
“Nah,” Ianto told her. “She’s just sexy.”
The cabdriver drove where Tosh told him to for fifteen minutes until the SUV stopped moving. When the cab arrived where the SUV had been taken, the group were frustrated to discover it was an impound.
“Thank you,” Tosh said to the driver as they climbed out, handing him the money plus a large tip for his cooperation. She pointed at the SUV and they walked into the impound as a group.
They walked into the small office building and, instantly, Ianto brought out his Torchwood ID, intent to flash it at the guy slumped behind the desk. “We’re here for our SUV,” Ianto said, his pleasant dealing-with-civilians smile plastered on his face.
The man grunted. “Yeah?”
“Yes,” Tosh told him. “You impounded it wrongly. We’re allowed to park wherever we chose. We’re Torchwood.”
“Nice,” Libby commented, earning herself a glare from Ianto and Buffy.
“You could be the bloody Prime Minister, love,” the man told her, “and I still wouldn’t give you your car back. Take it up with the officer who got us to bring it in.”
“Fine. What’s his name?” Ianto demanded.
The man shrugged. “How should I know? I don’t ask. I just do what I’m told.”
Ianto grunted, frustrated. “Well call them up, tell them to send the guy down here. We need our SUV back! There’s a lot of delicate equipment in there.”
“Not my problem,” the guy told him.
“Just call the damn cop!” Buffy snarled.
The man baulked. “Fine, fine,” he said, picking up the phone. “I’ll do it now.”
16:39
“Jack is going to kill me for losing the SUV,” Ianto said.
“Yep,” Buffy replied. “He’s going to kill us all. First he’ll kill us for her” - she jerked her thumb at Libby - “and then he’ll kill us for losing the SUV. Oh, and he’ll kill Owen and Willow for not having the brains to not let us out on our own.”
Ianto smirked. “He’d kill Owen just on principle.”
They were sat on a dingy little sofa in the office waiting for the officer to arrive. They’d been waiting over two and a half hours so far and they’d run out of travel games to play and stories to tell long ago. Tosh was fast asleep against the wall in the corner and Libby was asleep on the lone chair. Ianto and Buffy were the only ones still awake and functioning through their boredom.
Ianto sighed and leant back in his seat. “I spy with my little eye …” he started, hoping to break the boredom.
Buffy growled beneath her breath. “I’m begging you not to start that again. You’re impossible to play with. Who ever I-Spy’d ‘Naked Women Calendar On August Page’? Do you do it on purpose?”
Ianto nodded. “Yep,” he replied. “Makes the game more interesting.”
“Ianto,” Buffy said, calmly. “You could make it strip-I-Spy with the hottest men and women on Earth, combined with playing it in the most wonderful surroundings ever … and it would still be boring. Give it up.”
Ianto rolled his eyes. “Just trying to help …”
“Well don’t!” Buffy exclaimed. She stood up, walking across to the desk and shaking her fist at the closed door behind it. “He’s still not back,” she said, irritably.
“I’d’ve run away, too, when you started talking about demon-slaying,” Ianto commented. “Just sit down and wait for PC Button to arrive. He surely can’t be any longer.”
“You said that an hour ago,” Buffy retorted.
“Well … that was an hour ago and I’m even surer now.”
Buffy glared at him.
“What?”
She sighed. “Nothing.” She sat back down on the sofa and leant back with a groan. She was about to try and find some non-awkward topic of conversation when the door opened and a tall, young, handsome police officer walked in. “Oh, finally,” she muttered, under her breath, as she stood up. “You must be PC Button,” she said, walking across and extending her hand for him to shake.
He glared down at it then looked up at her. “Are you the owner of the vehicle I had brought in today?”
Buffy looked at Ianto then back. “Well,” she said, rubbing her neck. “No … it’s Torchwood’s … but we’re Torchwood!”
“May I see your driver’s licence?”
Buffy grimaced. “I don’t have one. Ianto drives. Ianto?”
Ianto rifled through his jacket and brought out his licence, passing it to the grumpy cop. The cop glanced at it then gave it back. “Do you realise you were parked in a non-parking zone?”
“Yes,” Ianto said, “but like Buffy said; we’re Torchwood. We’re allowed.”
The cop walked across to the desk and placed upon it a document. “The SUV was registered to a Mister J. Harkness,” he said, “I’ll have to see him before I can let you have the SUV back.”
Buffy clenched her fists, resisting the urge to pummel him. “We’re Torchwood; you’re supposed to cooperate with us!” she snapped.
“What is this ‘Torchwood’ then?” the cop asked, bad temperedly. “Some kind of band?”
“How can you not know Torchwood?” Libby asked. She had apparently woken up when the cop had arrived. “Everyone knows Torchwood.”
The cop shrugged. “I don’t follow modern music.”
“It’s not a band!” Buffy snarled. “It’s a secret organisation.”
“Not very secret if you tell me all about it,” the cop pointed out.
Buffy looked at Ianto. “Phone Jack,” she commanded. “Get him down here.”
“Eh…” Ianto held up his hands in mock surrender. “Can’t do that. He left his phone at home.”
“Well where is he then?” Buffy demanded. “I can go and find him.”
“I don’t know,” Ianto replied, with a sigh. “I woke up and the bed was empty. He’d left me a note and abandoned his mobile.”
Buffy grimaced. “Well, at least he can’t blame us for not asking him for help.”
Ianto nodded. “Look,” he said, turning to the cop. “We’re Torchwood. We’re outside the government, beyond the police and we want our SUV!”
The cop crossed his arms across his chest and glowered stubbornly at Ianto. “No.”
Ianto pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m phoning Andy,” he told Buffy. “Maybe he can sort this out.” He walked out of the office to phone.
Buffy glared at the officer. “Why are you so stubborn?” she asked.
“It’s my job, ma’am,” he replied.
“It’s your job to help people, not drive them to distraction,” Libby pointed out.
The PC looked at her and visibly relaxed, a smile breaking out over his face. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to do that. But I’m not at liberty to just release your car to you.”
Buffy looked at the two of them in turn. Libby was lounging against the desk, a smile playing on her face, fluttering her eyelashes, the cop was relaxing, smiling and gazing at her with this dreamy look on his face. “Oh you have to be joking!” Buffy exclaimed. They stared at her, shocked. “I … um … remembered something I forgot to do,” she offered, awkwardly. She walked across to the sofa and sat down with a heavy sigh, watching as Libby and the cop flirted.
A couple of minutes later the door opened again and Ianto walked back in. “Andy’s on his way over,” he announced. “He’ll clear this up for us.”
“Andy?” Buffy asked. None of the scoobies except Willow had had the pleasure of meeting Andy yet.
“Gwen’s ex-partner,” Ianto explained, “professionally.”
Buffy nodded her understanding as Ianto sat down next to her on the sofa. “Maybe Libby can just flirt our SUV back,” she suggested.
Ianto grimaced. “Stop me if I go into over-protective-brother mode, please.”
Buffy smiled at him. “Will do. Can I use violence?”
Raising an eyebrow at her, Ianto said, “No.”
“Dang.”
17:07
“Alright, so what’s all this I heard about the Torchwood SUV being taken away?” Andy asked as he walked through the door.
Ianto sighed. “He won’t give us the SUV back,” he said. “We keep saying we’re Torchwood, but he won’t listen!”
Andy turned to the cop. “Why not?”
“I don’t know what Torchwood is,” PC Button said. “Could be a band for all I know.”
Andy blinked at him. “Have you been living under a rock, mate? Torchwood is the most complained about organisation in Cardiff.”
“It is?”
“It is,” Andy told him. “Now do us a favour and let them have their SUV back?”
The cop sighed and shrugged. “Fine,” he said. “Give me a minute.” He smiled warmly at Libby, then walked around the desk and went through the back to find the guy who had vanished.
“So who’s this then?” Andy asked, with a grin, gesturing at Buffy.
Ianto sighed again. “Buffy Summers, Andy Davidson. Andy Davidson, Buffy Summers.”
“Is she part of Torchwood then?” Andy enquired as he shook Buffy’s hand.
“Yep,” Ianto replied. “We’ve … grown.”
“Any chance of a place then? I’d love to be part of Torchwood!”
Ianto shook his head. “God no. It’s crowded enough as it is.”
“Hey!” Buffy exclaimed, a little hurt.
“You know we love having you lot around,” Ianto said, exasperatedly. “But it is crowded, you have to see that.”
Buffy sniffed, petulantly. “I suppose so.”
“So you wouldn’t let me join, but you let her join?” Andy asked.
“It wasn’t a matter of ‘letting’ her join,” Ianto grumbled. “They turned up literally on our doorstep.”
Buffy huffed. “We didn’t do it deliberately. Your stupid rift spat us up.”
“She’s an alien?” Andy asked. “And … they?”
Ianto sighed. It was going to be a very long day.
18:26
“Yan, would you please talk to me?”
“No.”
“Oh come on!” Libby unbelted herself and scooted forward in the back seat, leaning across and putting a hand on Ianto’s shoulder. “It wasn’t that bad. He was cute!”
“So was John Hart, and he tried to kill us all.”
Libby decided not to comment on that. “I doubt he’ll ever even call,” she whined. “I just gave him my number.”
“You threw yourself at him!”
“I fell over!”
Ianto sighed and reminded himself, mentally, not to turn around and get into an argument as it might result in a car crash. “Put your seatbelt back on,” he snapped.
“I’m not a little kid, Yan. Don’t talk to me like I am!”
As they continued squabbling, Buffy shuffled closer to Tosh, away from the arguing pair. “I’m so glad you and Willow don’t have domestics in the hub.”
Tosh pulled a face. “Same to you and Spike.”
“I don’t think I could cope,” Buffy commented.
“Nor me.” Tosh’s bag beeped and she reached inside, retrieving her favourite piece of alien tech. “Ianto, Weevil sighting.”
“This time of day?” Ianto said, breaking off from his argument. He sighed. “Tell me where, I’ll drop you off and go deal with it.”
“I’m coming with you,” Buffy told him.
“I want to see another alien,” Libby announced.
Ianto bit his tongue to avoid telling Libby she sounded like a little kid. “Fine!” he snapped, angrily. “No one listen to me.”
“We won’t,” Libby replied, with a smirk.
19:47
“Where did it go?” Ianto demanded, having lost sight of the weevil to save Libby from being mauled.
Buffy let out a frustrated growl. “I don’t know!” she exclaimed. “Let me see.” She ran to the base of a tree and jumped, launching herself up through the branches and grabbing on, climbing to the top and looking out. It was starting to go dark, but her visibility was not impaired. Sometimes she actually liked being the Slayer.
“It’s heading west!” she yelled downwards.
“Wow,” Libby gasped, in awe, gazing up at the tree.
“Not now, Lib!” Ianto exclaimed, moving past her and running west. “Where about?” he yelled up at Buffy.
“Turn left!” Buffy shouted.
Ianto turned, just to have the weevil hurl itself at him. He yelled as he felt its teeth bite into his neck and fell to the ground, feeling the weevil being wrenched off him. He looked up to see Libby trying to fight it alone. “Libby!” he growled, concerned, pulling himself to his feet, ignoring the blood running down his shirt, and whipped the anti-weevil spray out of his pocket, advancing on the weevil as Buffy launched herself at it.
The weevil and Buffy fought for a minute, rolling along the ground, until Ianto threw a leash around its neck and hauled it off her, using the spray to keep it from attacking him again.
“Libby, are you okay?” he asked.
Libby sat up from where she had fallen to the ground. “Bumps and bruises, nothing serious,” she replied, with a grimace. Buffy offered her a hand and she pulled herself up. “Thanks,” she said. Buffy nodded at her.
“You’re hurt,” Buffy informed Ianto, pointing at his neck.
Ianto touched the wound, which had stopped bleeding. “Nothing serious,” he informed her. “Let’s go back to the hub.” He pointed at Libby. “And I’m taking you home!”
Libby grumbled, but said nothing. Ianto strode off towards the SUV, dragging the now obedient weevil behind him, and Buffy followed, falling into step next to him as Libby trailed far behind. “I’m starting to think RetConning her would be a mercy,” Ianto muttered.
Buffy raised an eyebrow. “I doubt she’d see it that way,” she replied.
“I didn’t mean for her.”
Buffy chuckled. “I can see why Jack likes you,” she said.
“It’s taken you this long to see it?” Ianto enquired, hurt.
Buffy shrugged. “What can I say? I’m blind.”
Ianto laughed as he climbed into the SUV. Tosh was waiting for them. “Did you get it?” she asked. Ianto nodded, pointing at the drugged weevil.
He handed the leash to Buffy, who took it, albeit sulkily. “Why am I always the one that manhandles the weevils into the trunk?”
Ianto smirked. “Because you have super-strength.” He was past trying to censor delicate information in front of Libby.
Buffy stuck her tongue out at him and dragged the weevil round to stuff in the back of the SUV as the others got into the car.
“Where to?” Tosh asked.
“I’ll take you and Buffy home, you both deserve an early night. I’ll take Libby home and tell her the rules again” - he shot his sister a glare - “and I’ll finish my paperwork at the hub.”
“You should get some sleep, too,” Tosh said, concerned.
“I will once Jack’s home.” Ianto groaned and leant forward to lean his head on the steering wheel. “How am I going to tell Jack about today?” he asked, grimacing.
“Be honest and … well … shag him until he’s too exhausted to get mad,” Tosh said.
Ianto laughed and started the car as Buffy got in the back. “That’s not a visual I needed,” Libby commented.
“Tough!” Ianto and Tosh said in unison, causing them to laugh even harder.
20:43
After dropping Buffy and Tosh home, much to their partners’ approval, Ianto drove Libby back to their parents’ house, pulling up in the driveway and stopping the car. He locked it when Libby tried to get out. “Wait,” he said.
Libby pulled a face. She knew that tone. That was the ‘we need to talk’ tone. “Yeah?” she grumbled.
“You can’t tell mam and dad about Torchwood,” Ianto said, ignoring Libby’s constant stream of ‘I know, I know, I know, I know…’, “and you can’t tell anyone else.” He sighed. “I still work in a tourist office according to them, alright? And I’ll talk to Jack about everything. That’ll be a fun conversation.”
Libby sighed. “Can I go now?”
Rolling his eyes, Ianto replied, “Yeah, sure. Come by and see me soon,” he commanded.
Libby replied, “At Torchwood?”
“No! At home!” Ianto told her, irritably. She leant across and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before climbing out of the car. She slammed the door and turned back, poking her head through the window.
“You’re still a cool big brother, secret organisation or not,” she told him, with a smile. “See you soon. Love you!”
Ianto smiled at her. “Love you too,” he told her, as he backed the car out of the drive.
23:59
“Puts my day into perspective,” Jack said, chuckling. “They didn’t harm the SUV, did they?” he asked, slightly concerned.
“Nope. She’s still in perfect shape. I think they even washed her,” Ianto replied, snuggling into Jack’s arms. “So what do we do about Libby?”
Jack sighed. “I don’t see a problem with her knowing as long as she doesn’t tell anyone,” he said. “Rhys knows … I don’t see why Libby can’t.”
“Thanks,” Ianto said, happily, kissing Jack soundly.
“What happened to the shag to exhaust me, by the way?” Jack asked.
Ianto chuckled. “I decided it was dishonest,” he said, with a smirk.
Jack snorted. “Dishonest my …”
“Jack!” Ianto looked up at him. “So, Jack … what about your day?”
Jack grimaced. “I was hoping you’d forgotten.”
“No such luck,” Ianto said. “Tell me where you were.”
“Well …” Jack started.
~Next Chapter~
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Jack/Ianto, Spike/Buffy, Willow/Tosh, Xander/Anya, Martha, Owen, Faith, some minor OCs, other characters may follow later…
Summary: Sequel to Magic and Mayhem at the Rift. The Scoobie gang, now fully integrated into the Torchwood group and settled in to their new lives, discover there’s more coming through the rift than the odd demon and alien. This story is set post Exit Wounds, so there are minor spoilers. However, I have major problems with Exit Wounds and, as such, only some of the storyline happened (same goes for Reset which, although it happened, did not end like it did in the series in my head. Dead Man Walking and A Day in the Death DID NOT HAPPEN. I’m in my happy place now ...). Episodes like Adrift, Something Borrowed and Out of the Rain did happen, though (Like I said before: happy place) and may be referred to or even flash-backed to from time to time.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood or Buffy the Vampire Slayer … I do however own the cracked story idea - and proud of it, thankyouverymuch! I don’t own the title of this story either, however, that was thought up by the wonderful ickle18(I say wonderful because anyone who can come up with this title must be), the daughter of missthingsplace THANK YOU!
My other stories and links to the chapters of Magic and Mayhem (and Vampires, Demons and Torchwood) can be found here, at my master list.
So it grew again. I was this close *holds up fingers a tiny bit apart* from splitting it into A, B and C! But I didn't. Instead I just let it expand again.
Oh, and break out the champagne - the story just hit 100,000 words! :D
I was aiming for humour with this chapter leading up to the next one ... which won't be humour.
This chapter is for
missthingsplace who wanted more and had to repress the urge to slap me for not posting often enough. :)
Previous chapters: Ch.1, Ch. 2 Ch.3 Ch.4 Ch.5 Ch.6 Ch.7 Ch.8 Ch.9 Ch.10 Ch.11a
Chapter 11: Ianto's Friday - Part B
Friday 8th August
13:29
When Buffy, Ianto, Tosh and Libby arrived at the alien sighting they piled out of the SUV and looked around.
“I don’t see it, do you?” Buffy said, scouring the streets.
“Nope,” Ianto replied. “But it was a good excuse to use the SUV. It doesn’t get used enough anymore.”
“It’s more comfortable than the minivan,” Tosh commented.
“So much for seeing an alien,” Libby huffed.
“Maybe it was a hoax,” Buffy suggested, ignoring her.
“Did you say hoix?” Ianto quizzed.
“Hoax,” Buffy said. She raised an eyebrow. “What the hell is a hoix?”
Ianto scratched his neck. “It doesn’t matter.” There was a noise in a nearby alleyway and he drew his gun. Buffy drew her axe at the same time and Tosh pulled out her own gun.
Buffy raised a hand for silence, held up her axe and approached, waving her hand to signal Ianto and Tosh to follow her. Ianto turned to Libby and pointed at the ground with a stern expression and mouthed ‘stay here’.
Libby rolled her eyes and mouthed in return ‘yeah right’ as she followed them into the alleyway, much to Ianto’s annoyance. As they got into the alleyway, they heard a crash, signifying that Buffy had, once again, gotten herself into a fight. Tosh leapt into action, running towards the disturbance while Ianto spared a second to glare at his sister before running down the alleyway after Tosh. Libby hung back only slightly, realising her presence could only hinder him and quite possibly risk his life.
The alleyway was shaded from the sun and was cooler than the rest of the city, Ianto was glad to discover as they followed the sound of fighting. They arrived at a dead end, where Buffy was stood in a defensive posture before a scared-looking blowfish holding a large truncheon.
“Nice of you to join us,” Buffy said, sarcastically, to Ianto, who raised his gun at the blowfish.
“I just want to go home!” the blowfish cried.
Libby walked around behind Ianto and poked her head out from around his back. “It’s just a kid,” she said, quietly.
“A kid that tried to beat me up!” Buffy snapped.
The blowfish dropped the truncheon. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone!”
Buffy sighed and lowered her axe. “We can’t send you back,” she said. “The rift only works one way. Right, Ianto?”
Ianto scratched his neck nervously. “Uh …yeah.” They all knew the truth thanks to Gwen and her one-woman mission to uncover all Jack’s secrets one at a time, but had agreed to keep the secret so that the aliens wouldn’t think they could be sent back.
After all, they couldn’t. If the aliens could be sent back, Buffy and her gang would have been sent back, themselves, long ago. Not that they wanted rid of the scoobies, not by any means. In fact, the Torchwood gang had become pleasantly used to their noisy presence around the hub to the point that their absence would devastate a lot of them.
The blowfish sniffed, noisily. “What are you going to do with me then?” he asked.
Ianto looked, helplessly, at Buffy, who was looking at him with the same level of helplessness in her eyes. Libby looked at Ianto with pleading eyes. “He’s just a kid,” she said.
Ianto rolled his eyes. “Since when did you become Gwen?” he enquired. She raised an eyebrow at him, not following the conversation, as Buffy started to giggle into her hand. Ianto smirked at her, glad someone got and enjoyed his humour.
Buffy walked over to him. “We could just let him go,” she suggested. “Ask him to keep to the shadows and avoid being out in public. He wasn’t reported as doing any harm … just existing.”
Ianto looked over at the kid, who was looking pretty pathetic and helpless. He could almost hear Jack’s voice in his head, telling him that letting the blowfish go would only cause trouble. He mentally stamped on Jack and turned to Buffy. “I don’t see how letting him go would hurt. Do you, Tosh?”
Tosh shrugged from nearby. “I suppose not. As long as we warn him not to cause trouble.”
Buffy nodded and turned back to Ianto. “Do you want to play diplomat or shall I?” she asked.
“Well, you’re the leader,” Ianto replied, with a grin.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Wimp,” she accused, walking across to the blowfish to discuss the terms of letting him loose.
Ianto leaned against the alleyway wall while Libby continued to stare at the blowfish. “Are all the aliens so … alien?” she asked.
Ianto shrugged. “Varies,” he said. “There’s this one alien that looks just like us but has two hearts and no sex drive according to Jack. Then again, Jack says anything that rejects him has no sex drive.”
Libby turned and blinked at Ianto. “Jack shags aliens?” she enquires.
Ianto glanced across at Tosh for a moment. “We all do,” he said, with a grin. “But Jack more than most. He’s omnisexual … likes anything with a postcode.”
“Aliens have postcodes?”
Ianto raised an eyebrow at her. “It was a metaphor.”
“Oh.” Libby watched the blowfish cowering from a very irritated looking Buffy for a minute before looking at Ianto. “Ever shagged an alien?”
Ianto gaped at her. “Libby!” he scolded.
“Oh come on, it’s not like you never asked about my sex life,” she accused.
“You were seventeen and I was concerned!” Ianto retorted. “It wasn’t like you were doing anything, though. Right?”
Libby blushed.
“Libby!” Ianto exclaimed, shocked. “You told me you weren’t!”
“Like you’ve never lied to me!” Libby snapped.
“Name a time!” Ianto challenged.
Libby put on her best Ianto-impersonation, even adopting the Welsh accent she always kept at bay. “‘Same old stuff every day, really. I hardly even go outside the door.’ Ring a bell?”
It was Ianto’s turn to blush. “Okay, fine. But you know I had to lie about that,” he argued. “It was part of my job.”
Libby sighed and walked around to lean against the wall next to Ianto. “I shouldn’t know.”
“Nope.”
“What are they going to do to me, Yan? What happens when someone finds out about Torchwood that shouldn’t?”
Ianto sighed, slipping an arm around his sister and holding her close. “They won’t harm you. I promise.”
“What will happen?”
“If Jack decides you shouldn’t know … and I’m going to fight him about this, don’t worry … then you’ll be RetCon’d.”
“Ret…what?”
“RetCon … it’s an amnesia pill. Makes you forget.” Ianto kissed her hair. “I don’t want you to forget, though. It’s nice to be able to tell you this stuff.”
“Does it hurt?”
Ianto looked round at her. Although she was only two years younger than him, she seemed, sometimes, so much younger. He wondered if it was only him she was like this around. “No,” he promised. “You just go to sleep and wake up forgetting about aliens and Torchwood.”
“I won’t forget you though, right?”
“Nah. I’m too normal to be forgotten,” Ianto replied, smirking. She thumped him on the arm for that.
“Idiot,” she accused.
He was about to retort and thus turn the conversation into an insult rally when Buffy came over. “All done,” she said. “Let’s go back to the hub.”
Ianto cast a look over at the blowfish, who, judging by the expression on his face, was scarred for life by something Buffy had said, then moved away from the wall. Libby followed suit and they walked back to where they had parked the SUV.
“Where’s the SUV gone?” Buffy enquired, calmly, noticing the completely empty road.
“How should I know?” Ianto replied.
“I can track it,” Tosh announced.
“Okay, where’s it gone?” Buffy asked as Libby called a cab. Buffy couldn’t help grudgingly noticing that the girl could think on her feet.
“North,” Tosh told them as they piled into the cab, Ianto, Libby and Buffy in the back and Tosh riding shotgun. Tosh turned to the cabdriver and gave him her most sexy, dazzling smile. “Drive where I tell you,” she commanded.
The driver nodded, dazedly. “Anything you say, sugar,” he replied, gruffly.
“Does she have special hypnotic powers?” Libby asked. At this point she was willing to believe anything. Buffy rolled her eyes.
“Nah,” Ianto told her. “She’s just sexy.”
The cabdriver drove where Tosh told him to for fifteen minutes until the SUV stopped moving. When the cab arrived where the SUV had been taken, the group were frustrated to discover it was an impound.
“Thank you,” Tosh said to the driver as they climbed out, handing him the money plus a large tip for his cooperation. She pointed at the SUV and they walked into the impound as a group.
They walked into the small office building and, instantly, Ianto brought out his Torchwood ID, intent to flash it at the guy slumped behind the desk. “We’re here for our SUV,” Ianto said, his pleasant dealing-with-civilians smile plastered on his face.
The man grunted. “Yeah?”
“Yes,” Tosh told him. “You impounded it wrongly. We’re allowed to park wherever we chose. We’re Torchwood.”
“Nice,” Libby commented, earning herself a glare from Ianto and Buffy.
“You could be the bloody Prime Minister, love,” the man told her, “and I still wouldn’t give you your car back. Take it up with the officer who got us to bring it in.”
“Fine. What’s his name?” Ianto demanded.
The man shrugged. “How should I know? I don’t ask. I just do what I’m told.”
Ianto grunted, frustrated. “Well call them up, tell them to send the guy down here. We need our SUV back! There’s a lot of delicate equipment in there.”
“Not my problem,” the guy told him.
“Just call the damn cop!” Buffy snarled.
The man baulked. “Fine, fine,” he said, picking up the phone. “I’ll do it now.”
16:39
“Jack is going to kill me for losing the SUV,” Ianto said.
“Yep,” Buffy replied. “He’s going to kill us all. First he’ll kill us for her” - she jerked her thumb at Libby - “and then he’ll kill us for losing the SUV. Oh, and he’ll kill Owen and Willow for not having the brains to not let us out on our own.”
Ianto smirked. “He’d kill Owen just on principle.”
They were sat on a dingy little sofa in the office waiting for the officer to arrive. They’d been waiting over two and a half hours so far and they’d run out of travel games to play and stories to tell long ago. Tosh was fast asleep against the wall in the corner and Libby was asleep on the lone chair. Ianto and Buffy were the only ones still awake and functioning through their boredom.
Ianto sighed and leant back in his seat. “I spy with my little eye …” he started, hoping to break the boredom.
Buffy growled beneath her breath. “I’m begging you not to start that again. You’re impossible to play with. Who ever I-Spy’d ‘Naked Women Calendar On August Page’? Do you do it on purpose?”
Ianto nodded. “Yep,” he replied. “Makes the game more interesting.”
“Ianto,” Buffy said, calmly. “You could make it strip-I-Spy with the hottest men and women on Earth, combined with playing it in the most wonderful surroundings ever … and it would still be boring. Give it up.”
Ianto rolled his eyes. “Just trying to help …”
“Well don’t!” Buffy exclaimed. She stood up, walking across to the desk and shaking her fist at the closed door behind it. “He’s still not back,” she said, irritably.
“I’d’ve run away, too, when you started talking about demon-slaying,” Ianto commented. “Just sit down and wait for PC Button to arrive. He surely can’t be any longer.”
“You said that an hour ago,” Buffy retorted.
“Well … that was an hour ago and I’m even surer now.”
Buffy glared at him.
“What?”
She sighed. “Nothing.” She sat back down on the sofa and leant back with a groan. She was about to try and find some non-awkward topic of conversation when the door opened and a tall, young, handsome police officer walked in. “Oh, finally,” she muttered, under her breath, as she stood up. “You must be PC Button,” she said, walking across and extending her hand for him to shake.
He glared down at it then looked up at her. “Are you the owner of the vehicle I had brought in today?”
Buffy looked at Ianto then back. “Well,” she said, rubbing her neck. “No … it’s Torchwood’s … but we’re Torchwood!”
“May I see your driver’s licence?”
Buffy grimaced. “I don’t have one. Ianto drives. Ianto?”
Ianto rifled through his jacket and brought out his licence, passing it to the grumpy cop. The cop glanced at it then gave it back. “Do you realise you were parked in a non-parking zone?”
“Yes,” Ianto said, “but like Buffy said; we’re Torchwood. We’re allowed.”
The cop walked across to the desk and placed upon it a document. “The SUV was registered to a Mister J. Harkness,” he said, “I’ll have to see him before I can let you have the SUV back.”
Buffy clenched her fists, resisting the urge to pummel him. “We’re Torchwood; you’re supposed to cooperate with us!” she snapped.
“What is this ‘Torchwood’ then?” the cop asked, bad temperedly. “Some kind of band?”
“How can you not know Torchwood?” Libby asked. She had apparently woken up when the cop had arrived. “Everyone knows Torchwood.”
The cop shrugged. “I don’t follow modern music.”
“It’s not a band!” Buffy snarled. “It’s a secret organisation.”
“Not very secret if you tell me all about it,” the cop pointed out.
Buffy looked at Ianto. “Phone Jack,” she commanded. “Get him down here.”
“Eh…” Ianto held up his hands in mock surrender. “Can’t do that. He left his phone at home.”
“Well where is he then?” Buffy demanded. “I can go and find him.”
“I don’t know,” Ianto replied, with a sigh. “I woke up and the bed was empty. He’d left me a note and abandoned his mobile.”
Buffy grimaced. “Well, at least he can’t blame us for not asking him for help.”
Ianto nodded. “Look,” he said, turning to the cop. “We’re Torchwood. We’re outside the government, beyond the police and we want our SUV!”
The cop crossed his arms across his chest and glowered stubbornly at Ianto. “No.”
Ianto pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m phoning Andy,” he told Buffy. “Maybe he can sort this out.” He walked out of the office to phone.
Buffy glared at the officer. “Why are you so stubborn?” she asked.
“It’s my job, ma’am,” he replied.
“It’s your job to help people, not drive them to distraction,” Libby pointed out.
The PC looked at her and visibly relaxed, a smile breaking out over his face. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to do that. But I’m not at liberty to just release your car to you.”
Buffy looked at the two of them in turn. Libby was lounging against the desk, a smile playing on her face, fluttering her eyelashes, the cop was relaxing, smiling and gazing at her with this dreamy look on his face. “Oh you have to be joking!” Buffy exclaimed. They stared at her, shocked. “I … um … remembered something I forgot to do,” she offered, awkwardly. She walked across to the sofa and sat down with a heavy sigh, watching as Libby and the cop flirted.
A couple of minutes later the door opened again and Ianto walked back in. “Andy’s on his way over,” he announced. “He’ll clear this up for us.”
“Andy?” Buffy asked. None of the scoobies except Willow had had the pleasure of meeting Andy yet.
“Gwen’s ex-partner,” Ianto explained, “professionally.”
Buffy nodded her understanding as Ianto sat down next to her on the sofa. “Maybe Libby can just flirt our SUV back,” she suggested.
Ianto grimaced. “Stop me if I go into over-protective-brother mode, please.”
Buffy smiled at him. “Will do. Can I use violence?”
Raising an eyebrow at her, Ianto said, “No.”
“Dang.”
17:07
“Alright, so what’s all this I heard about the Torchwood SUV being taken away?” Andy asked as he walked through the door.
Ianto sighed. “He won’t give us the SUV back,” he said. “We keep saying we’re Torchwood, but he won’t listen!”
Andy turned to the cop. “Why not?”
“I don’t know what Torchwood is,” PC Button said. “Could be a band for all I know.”
Andy blinked at him. “Have you been living under a rock, mate? Torchwood is the most complained about organisation in Cardiff.”
“It is?”
“It is,” Andy told him. “Now do us a favour and let them have their SUV back?”
The cop sighed and shrugged. “Fine,” he said. “Give me a minute.” He smiled warmly at Libby, then walked around the desk and went through the back to find the guy who had vanished.
“So who’s this then?” Andy asked, with a grin, gesturing at Buffy.
Ianto sighed again. “Buffy Summers, Andy Davidson. Andy Davidson, Buffy Summers.”
“Is she part of Torchwood then?” Andy enquired as he shook Buffy’s hand.
“Yep,” Ianto replied. “We’ve … grown.”
“Any chance of a place then? I’d love to be part of Torchwood!”
Ianto shook his head. “God no. It’s crowded enough as it is.”
“Hey!” Buffy exclaimed, a little hurt.
“You know we love having you lot around,” Ianto said, exasperatedly. “But it is crowded, you have to see that.”
Buffy sniffed, petulantly. “I suppose so.”
“So you wouldn’t let me join, but you let her join?” Andy asked.
“It wasn’t a matter of ‘letting’ her join,” Ianto grumbled. “They turned up literally on our doorstep.”
Buffy huffed. “We didn’t do it deliberately. Your stupid rift spat us up.”
“She’s an alien?” Andy asked. “And … they?”
Ianto sighed. It was going to be a very long day.
18:26
“Yan, would you please talk to me?”
“No.”
“Oh come on!” Libby unbelted herself and scooted forward in the back seat, leaning across and putting a hand on Ianto’s shoulder. “It wasn’t that bad. He was cute!”
“So was John Hart, and he tried to kill us all.”
Libby decided not to comment on that. “I doubt he’ll ever even call,” she whined. “I just gave him my number.”
“You threw yourself at him!”
“I fell over!”
Ianto sighed and reminded himself, mentally, not to turn around and get into an argument as it might result in a car crash. “Put your seatbelt back on,” he snapped.
“I’m not a little kid, Yan. Don’t talk to me like I am!”
As they continued squabbling, Buffy shuffled closer to Tosh, away from the arguing pair. “I’m so glad you and Willow don’t have domestics in the hub.”
Tosh pulled a face. “Same to you and Spike.”
“I don’t think I could cope,” Buffy commented.
“Nor me.” Tosh’s bag beeped and she reached inside, retrieving her favourite piece of alien tech. “Ianto, Weevil sighting.”
“This time of day?” Ianto said, breaking off from his argument. He sighed. “Tell me where, I’ll drop you off and go deal with it.”
“I’m coming with you,” Buffy told him.
“I want to see another alien,” Libby announced.
Ianto bit his tongue to avoid telling Libby she sounded like a little kid. “Fine!” he snapped, angrily. “No one listen to me.”
“We won’t,” Libby replied, with a smirk.
19:47
“Where did it go?” Ianto demanded, having lost sight of the weevil to save Libby from being mauled.
Buffy let out a frustrated growl. “I don’t know!” she exclaimed. “Let me see.” She ran to the base of a tree and jumped, launching herself up through the branches and grabbing on, climbing to the top and looking out. It was starting to go dark, but her visibility was not impaired. Sometimes she actually liked being the Slayer.
“It’s heading west!” she yelled downwards.
“Wow,” Libby gasped, in awe, gazing up at the tree.
“Not now, Lib!” Ianto exclaimed, moving past her and running west. “Where about?” he yelled up at Buffy.
“Turn left!” Buffy shouted.
Ianto turned, just to have the weevil hurl itself at him. He yelled as he felt its teeth bite into his neck and fell to the ground, feeling the weevil being wrenched off him. He looked up to see Libby trying to fight it alone. “Libby!” he growled, concerned, pulling himself to his feet, ignoring the blood running down his shirt, and whipped the anti-weevil spray out of his pocket, advancing on the weevil as Buffy launched herself at it.
The weevil and Buffy fought for a minute, rolling along the ground, until Ianto threw a leash around its neck and hauled it off her, using the spray to keep it from attacking him again.
“Libby, are you okay?” he asked.
Libby sat up from where she had fallen to the ground. “Bumps and bruises, nothing serious,” she replied, with a grimace. Buffy offered her a hand and she pulled herself up. “Thanks,” she said. Buffy nodded at her.
“You’re hurt,” Buffy informed Ianto, pointing at his neck.
Ianto touched the wound, which had stopped bleeding. “Nothing serious,” he informed her. “Let’s go back to the hub.” He pointed at Libby. “And I’m taking you home!”
Libby grumbled, but said nothing. Ianto strode off towards the SUV, dragging the now obedient weevil behind him, and Buffy followed, falling into step next to him as Libby trailed far behind. “I’m starting to think RetConning her would be a mercy,” Ianto muttered.
Buffy raised an eyebrow. “I doubt she’d see it that way,” she replied.
“I didn’t mean for her.”
Buffy chuckled. “I can see why Jack likes you,” she said.
“It’s taken you this long to see it?” Ianto enquired, hurt.
Buffy shrugged. “What can I say? I’m blind.”
Ianto laughed as he climbed into the SUV. Tosh was waiting for them. “Did you get it?” she asked. Ianto nodded, pointing at the drugged weevil.
He handed the leash to Buffy, who took it, albeit sulkily. “Why am I always the one that manhandles the weevils into the trunk?”
Ianto smirked. “Because you have super-strength.” He was past trying to censor delicate information in front of Libby.
Buffy stuck her tongue out at him and dragged the weevil round to stuff in the back of the SUV as the others got into the car.
“Where to?” Tosh asked.
“I’ll take you and Buffy home, you both deserve an early night. I’ll take Libby home and tell her the rules again” - he shot his sister a glare - “and I’ll finish my paperwork at the hub.”
“You should get some sleep, too,” Tosh said, concerned.
“I will once Jack’s home.” Ianto groaned and leant forward to lean his head on the steering wheel. “How am I going to tell Jack about today?” he asked, grimacing.
“Be honest and … well … shag him until he’s too exhausted to get mad,” Tosh said.
Ianto laughed and started the car as Buffy got in the back. “That’s not a visual I needed,” Libby commented.
“Tough!” Ianto and Tosh said in unison, causing them to laugh even harder.
20:43
After dropping Buffy and Tosh home, much to their partners’ approval, Ianto drove Libby back to their parents’ house, pulling up in the driveway and stopping the car. He locked it when Libby tried to get out. “Wait,” he said.
Libby pulled a face. She knew that tone. That was the ‘we need to talk’ tone. “Yeah?” she grumbled.
“You can’t tell mam and dad about Torchwood,” Ianto said, ignoring Libby’s constant stream of ‘I know, I know, I know, I know…’, “and you can’t tell anyone else.” He sighed. “I still work in a tourist office according to them, alright? And I’ll talk to Jack about everything. That’ll be a fun conversation.”
Libby sighed. “Can I go now?”
Rolling his eyes, Ianto replied, “Yeah, sure. Come by and see me soon,” he commanded.
Libby replied, “At Torchwood?”
“No! At home!” Ianto told her, irritably. She leant across and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before climbing out of the car. She slammed the door and turned back, poking her head through the window.
“You’re still a cool big brother, secret organisation or not,” she told him, with a smile. “See you soon. Love you!”
Ianto smiled at her. “Love you too,” he told her, as he backed the car out of the drive.
23:59
“Puts my day into perspective,” Jack said, chuckling. “They didn’t harm the SUV, did they?” he asked, slightly concerned.
“Nope. She’s still in perfect shape. I think they even washed her,” Ianto replied, snuggling into Jack’s arms. “So what do we do about Libby?”
Jack sighed. “I don’t see a problem with her knowing as long as she doesn’t tell anyone,” he said. “Rhys knows … I don’t see why Libby can’t.”
“Thanks,” Ianto said, happily, kissing Jack soundly.
“What happened to the shag to exhaust me, by the way?” Jack asked.
Ianto chuckled. “I decided it was dishonest,” he said, with a smirk.
Jack snorted. “Dishonest my …”
“Jack!” Ianto looked up at him. “So, Jack … what about your day?”
Jack grimaced. “I was hoping you’d forgotten.”
“No such luck,” Ianto said. “Tell me where you were.”
“Well …” Jack started.
~Next Chapter~