The moment the transmission starts, Suzie's gasping. And when the recording starts, she has to press a hand to her mouth to hold the scream in, because she knows those sounds, knows them intimately.
She should take the headset off. She should stop listening. She can't. Can only cry and try and breathe and not scream.
Somewhere in the hallways of the Kashtta, Suzie Costello's hyperventilating.
Ianto's running through the halls when he notices Suzie.
"Suzie?" His own cheeks are wet, and he's horrified, but everyone has to keep together. And Suzie Costello falling apart strikes him as one of the worse things that could happen. "Suzie. I need you to breathe." He reconsiders that. "Slowly."
That's when he makes the mistake of reaching for her, trying to snap her out of it. She lashes out the moment he makes contact, striking at his face, not even thinking, just reacting. Just remembering.
If she'd been a bit more in control, she could've done something much worse than broken his nose. He knows this.
"SUZIE!" There's blood pouring down his face, but this is not the time for that.
Something in his voice, though, or in the sight of the blood gushing from his nose, seems to snap her out of it.
"...Ianto?" She stares at him in horror. "I didn't..." And she's hyperventilating again.
Ianto, for his part, just holds a sleeve against his nose, wincing. "Just breathe. We don't have time for this. Let's just... find Gwen."
Gwen pauses maybe half a heartbeat after Thane stops speaking before she registers what's going on, and tears the headset off her head, hurling it across the room so hard it might have just broken it. That's not important just now.
She's not going to be able to reach him over the headsets, so a second later she's racing down the hall to the control room, praying Marshall's there. She's not letting this go on. They're shutting this down, and then they are going to find Thane and Gwen is going to rip his throat out with her hands if that's what it takes to get Tosh away from him.
Marshall is always in the control room, these days, especially ever since Tosh, and he had the idea Gwen's got in her head just so happens to be the same one he got into his head the minute Thane mentioned Tosh's name. He had the headset torn off and flung to the ground before anything started, but his imagination can fill in the blanks.
It takes approximately ten seconds to cut the transmission, but that's honestly ten seconds too long, but he'll probably have it finished before Gwen's through the door.
Gwen hits the door, skids through without even really slowing to a stop, and catches herself on the back of a chair before she can run into anything. She doesn't have a headset, so she can't tell if it's still going, but from the look on Marshall's face... "You cut it off?" she asks breathlessly, her tone clipped. Deal with this, grab the rest of her team, go to deal with Thane. No time for anything else.
Marshall's leaning back in his chair, looking a little breathless despite this situation not really calling for overexertion of any kind... He just doesn't want to think of horrible things happening to Tosh and the mere concept makes him want to panic, but he's keeping his cool. Somehow.
"Yeah, I cut it off," he says, after taking a second or two to collect himself.
Owen is moving to find Gwen, but he freezes the instant those noises start. Because this, he's heard before, through that damn ghost machine, but not with voices he knows, and not-
He's on the move before he stops to think about it. Hell, he's shot Jack once before, and if it's just a matter of shooting him and keeping him shot or just shooting him long enough to get to Tosh, then....
The Vesmier heard the transmission, but without the requisite referants to understand on a visceral level what was happening, it didn't hit him more than This is an innocent person being hurt.
What he can't help but feel, however, is the mass spike of emotions resonating from every part of the building, humming along the conductive walls, increasing and rebounding. And coming with that is a mindless aggression, and Ves knows enough to know that this can't end well if it's allowed to run its course.
And he's not going to watch them go to their certain capture, and have to contact the Doctor to apologise for letting the people meant to rescue him walk into such an unashamedly barefaced trap.
So he's walked down to the lobby and is standing in front of the doors, unsure how to reason down a group of emotionally-charged humans, but more than aware that he needs to. There's only a shade of concern on his expressions - which means that he's very, very concerned indeed, for himself as well as them.
Book's first action on hearing the transmission was to go to Torchwood's makeshift weapons locker (old habit he's never lost, knowing exactly where the weapons are at all times), and grab the largest, most intimidating weapon he could find.
It just happened to be for a different reason than, he suspects, most of Torchwood.
He heads for the main doors at a dead run, and pulls up short when he sees Ves. "I have the feeling you might've had the same idea I did." There's nothing of the peaceful preacher in his expression now. The way he carries himself is that of a man who was made to be a weapon, and who, for the moment, is choosing to be an uncrossable barrier. "We're on the verge of true stupidity here."
His face is grim, and he's clearly just as unhappy with what happened as anyone else, but he's not about to let his surrogate crew run blindly into more of what happened to Toshiko.
And sometimes a big gun and someone willing to use it are what it takes to get people to see reason.
Ves sees him coming up, registers the weapon, and the concern flickers a few points deeper before he smooths it over.
"Instagur Thane hopes for the very response I can feel them enacting," Ves says. "And was so confident in it that he could announce it in his own words. I have no intention of allowing them to further his aims."
Though the use of weaponry is not one which he would like to see this devolve to.
Book notes the concern, and keeps his voice low and soothing. "I don't much want to use this," he says, very pointedly holding the gun in a relaxed posture and looking distinctly unhappy. "I'm a man of peace these days. But shooting any of them here and now would be a kindness compared to what Thane's going to do. I intend to drive that point home if I have to."
He's not the sort of man to leave people to be tortured, and he's taken up arms to retrieve a teammate before. This time, he's hoping to keep from needing to get any more of them back than are already gone.
Comments 26
She should take the headset off. She should stop listening. She can't. Can only cry and try and breathe and not scream.
Somewhere in the hallways of the Kashtta, Suzie Costello's hyperventilating.
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"Suzie?" His own cheeks are wet, and he's horrified, but everyone has to keep together. And Suzie Costello falling apart strikes him as one of the worse things that could happen. "Suzie. I need you to breathe." He reconsiders that. "Slowly."
That's when he makes the mistake of reaching for her, trying to snap her out of it. She lashes out the moment he makes contact, striking at his face, not even thinking, just reacting. Just remembering.
If she'd been a bit more in control, she could've done something much worse than broken his nose. He knows this.
"SUZIE!" There's blood pouring down his face, but this is not the time for that.
Something in his voice, though, or in the sight of the blood gushing from his nose, seems to snap her out of it.
"...Ianto?" She stares at him in horror. "I didn't..." And she's hyperventilating again.
Ianto, for his part, just holds a sleeve against his nose, wincing. "Just breathe. We don't have time for this. Let's just... find Gwen."
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She's not going to be able to reach him over the headsets, so a second later she's racing down the hall to the control room, praying Marshall's there. She's not letting this go on. They're shutting this down, and then they are going to find Thane and Gwen is going to rip his throat out with her hands if that's what it takes to get Tosh away from him.
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It takes approximately ten seconds to cut the transmission, but that's honestly ten seconds too long, but he'll probably have it finished before Gwen's through the door.
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"Yeah, I cut it off," he says, after taking a second or two to collect himself.
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He's on the move before he stops to think about it. Hell, he's shot Jack once before, and if it's just a matter of shooting him and keeping him shot or just shooting him long enough to get to Tosh, then....
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What he can't help but feel, however, is the mass spike of emotions resonating from every part of the building, humming along the conductive walls, increasing and rebounding. And coming with that is a mindless aggression, and Ves knows enough to know that this can't end well if it's allowed to run its course.
And he's not going to watch them go to their certain capture, and have to contact the Doctor to apologise for letting the people meant to rescue him walk into such an unashamedly barefaced trap.
So he's walked down to the lobby and is standing in front of the doors, unsure how to reason down a group of emotionally-charged humans, but more than aware that he needs to. There's only a shade of concern on his expressions - which means that he's very, very concerned indeed, for himself as well as them.
Reply
It just happened to be for a different reason than, he suspects, most of Torchwood.
He heads for the main doors at a dead run, and pulls up short when he sees Ves. "I have the feeling you might've had the same idea I did." There's nothing of the peaceful preacher in his expression now. The way he carries himself is that of a man who was made to be a weapon, and who, for the moment, is choosing to be an uncrossable barrier. "We're on the verge of true stupidity here."
His face is grim, and he's clearly just as unhappy with what happened as anyone else, but he's not about to let his surrogate crew run blindly into more of what happened to Toshiko.
And sometimes a big gun and someone willing to use it are what it takes to get people to see reason.
Reply
"Instagur Thane hopes for the very response I can feel them enacting," Ves says. "And was so confident in it that he could announce it in his own words. I have no intention of allowing them to further his aims."
Though the use of weaponry is not one which he would like to see this devolve to.
Reply
He's not the sort of man to leave people to be tortured, and he's taken up arms to retrieve a teammate before. This time, he's hoping to keep from needing to get any more of them back than are already gone.
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