Fic: The Oncoming Storm (Slash, AU, Janto 37/40 Conclusion 2/2)
Author: d8rkmessngr
Pairing: Jack/OMC, Jack/?, Jack/Ianto eventually, het and slash
Rating: NC-17 (betaed)
Summary: He left Jack on the game station. Abandoned. But then…he came back…different. An AU look on what happens if things happened differently. Doctor Who 'verse with Torchwood later on. Be sure to read the warnings.
Warnings: Please read each chapter's individual warnings. Some parts down the road may briefly mention non-con, abuse, and/or violence. Dark in the beginning. Please note there are some dark thoughts as my boys are broken…for now. Each chapter will be labeled for your convenience.
Author's Notes: Please note this is an AU that will cross over DW to TW season one. I'm probably spoiling my own story, but it will eventually be Janto. There's a bit of a journey first. I hope you enjoy. I'm working on this and intend to post regularly every other day. And again, I always believe in happy endings. So without further ado…
Disclaimer: RTD and BBC owns them. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Warning For This Chapter: strong language, dark, angsty, VIOLENCE
Notes For This Chapter: Note there are parallels to DW's "The Sound of Drums"
Prologue + Ch , Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18. Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26, Ch 27, Ch 28, Ch 29, Ch 30, Ch 31, Ch 32, Ch 33, Ch 34, Ch 35, Ch 36, Ch 37 Act 1/9, Ch 37 Act 2/9, Ch 37 Act 3/9, Ch 37 Act 4/9, Ch 37 Act 5/9, Ch 37 Act 6/9 1/2, Ch 37 Act 6/9 2/2, Ch 37 Act 7/9, Ch 37 Act 8/9, Ch 37 Conclusion 1/2
Master Fic List: here
Chapter 37 "The Sound of Drums"
Conclusion 2/2: "Here come the drums!"
Valiant
Somewhere above London
Present day…
There was no signal. At least not the one they'd originally planned.
It was suppose to be Jack's wolf whistle.
Instead, it was a woman screaming.
"Come on," Owen shouted. The UNIT guard had ducked inside. It was their cue.
No one questioned. No one argued they should wait.
Owen could sense Gwen and Tosh right behind him as they pushed through the doors, striking the door on the guards from behind, taking their guns as they fell. People were screaming. Some were cowering against the walls. Owen heard Gwen shouting for people to get down. Where was President Winters?
"Well, well, our heroes have arrived."
As one, they all aimed their captured guns towards Saxon, who stood center of the melee, atop some stairs like a vicar on a pulpit, his arms braced on either side of the wooden rails. His wife, whom Owen thought of as loopy Lucy, trotted past people trying to make themselves small targets and joined Saxon on his elevated station. She was biting her lower lip, her heels tapping nervously on the steps.
Saxon smiled at them, unflinching at their weapons. In fact, he looked delighted.
"How fast do you think you can fire, Torchwood, before they," Saxon gestured towards the armed black-suited men scattered around the room, "fire on everyone else?"
Owen clenched his teeth as he studied the eight guards distributed around the room. Even some of the UNIT guards were being forced to keep their hands up, their faces too white with shock over whatever they had seen to be of much use.
Saxon pursed his lips. He clasped his hands together.
"Oh, how I hate these tense and indecisive moments. What to do? What to do? Never a rousing soundtrack to really up the angst here. Would have made things much more interesting." Saxon reached behind him and snagged his wife closer. She wrapped an arm around his middle, a golden lady against Saxon's black.
"Darling," Saxon drawled as he smiled at them in the back. "We're at a standoff." Saxon looked towards the cameras still filming. "How dramatic." He pulled Lucy tight to his side. Saxon dipped his eyes towards her. "Any suggestions, my dear?"
Lucy's eyes were surprisingly clear compared to the last time they had seen her. She tapped a finger to her red lips before waving her finger in the air like some stupid wand.
"Um, kill that one," Lucy pointed to a blonde cowering by a table leg.
Saxon snapped his fingers. "Guard."
The woman sobbed as she was yanked to her feet by the hair. She tried to drag her feet so they couldn't get her standing upright. She was begging and pleading as the guard pressed a gun to the back of her head.
"All right!" Gwen shouted. She raised the hand not holding the gun.
"Gwen!" Owen snapped.
"Lower your weapons," Gwen hissed. Her eyes darted towards Saxon, then slid around the room.
Owen gave the room a quick glance as well.
"Owen," Gwen repeated as she and Tosh stooped down slowly to set their guns on the floor.
"Fine," Owen spat out. He did the same. He straightened and put his hands up.
"Alright," Gwen said calmly. "We've lowered our weapons. Tell the guard, don't shoot."
Saxon tilted his head as if thinking it over before he said to the guard "Shoot."
"No!" they all screamed and it was almost loud enough to cover the loud gunshot. It was certainly loud enough to cover the sound of the girl's body dropping to the ground.
Someone in the back retched.
"You son of a bitch!" Owen exploded even as he searched the room. Where the hell were they? "We dropped our weapons!"
"You didn't have to shoot!" Tosh shouted, horrified.
Gwen, speechless, only stared at the girl's corpse.
Saxon placed his hand to his throat, his eyes wide.
"Oooh, you said don't shoot!" Saxon tsked and stuck a finger in his ear. "My hearing must be going. My bad!"
"You piece of-"
"Captain, stop him."
Owen stopped short, unsure why Saxon abruptly waved a hand in front of him.
Out of nowhere, the Doctor reappeared, the crystal yanked from his grasp and-What the fuck?
"Jack, what are you doing?" Gwen cried.
Jack stood there, his stiff back towards them, his hands pulling the Doctor's arms behind him and forcing him to his knees.
"Ah, Doctor," Saxon practically purred. "And my Captain. Reunited at last." Saxon laughed and clapped his hands. Saxon grinned towards the cameras.
"And we didn't have to wait twenty five years on the telly!"
"Stop this! Stop this now!" the Doctor roared, struggling to break free of Jack's grip but Jack never even stirred.
"As if a perception filter is gonna work on me," Saxon scoffed. He glanced towards his left.
"You can be as still as mice, but I know you're there. Show yourselves to the rest of the kiddies."
"Jack!" Ianto cried out as he pulled his key over his head. Everyone whipped their heads around, startled to see a man materialize in front of them. The idiot would have charged Saxon but Martha reappeared and grabbed his left arm with both of hers.
The guards, stunned at first, recovered fast enough to surround Ianto and Martha.
Saxon patted Lucy's hand on his hip.
"You know," Saxon mused. He sneered at Martha. "Even now I still can't decide if you're the girlie or the freak."
"What have you done to Jack?" Ianto shouted. He grunted as a guard shoved him down to his knees.
Owen realized Jack never turned around, never acknowledged Ianto and Gwen's calls. He stood there, perfect posture and all, a statue holding onto the Doctor.
"What have I done to him?" Saxon's eyes bulged and he tilted his head back and roared uncontrollably with a glee that raised the hairs on the back of Owen's neck. "How cliché is that? You childish ape! What have I done to him? What have I not done to him?"
"Master, just calm down." The bloody Doctor was still trying to talk to him. "Just look at what you're doing, just stop." The Doctor writhed to break free from Jack but Jack was like rock. He never moved. "If you could see yourself!"
Saxon pulled out what looked like the same kind of sonic screwdriver.
"I can see myself," Saxon murmured. His face twisted. "Sometimes all I see is myself." He turned towards the cameras again.
"Excuse me. I have to interrupt your program. A little personal business. Back in a minute." Saxon bared his teeth. "Don't touch that dial now, you hear?"
Lucy laughed.
Saxon considered Jack.
"You can let him go, Captain."
No response, but the unexpected release dropped the Doctor into an ungainly pile to the floor.
"Jack!" Gwen shouted. She gasped as a guard tapped her shoulder with the butt of her gun.
Ianto just stared, aghast. His face was a pasty white as he tracked Jack joining Saxon to stand over the Doctor. Jack never looked towards their direction or Ianto's.
"The Arcateen crystal," the Doctor hissed. He tilted his head up at them standing over him like a panel of judges. "You did this to him."
"No, no, no," Saxon waved a hand in front of him. "You're not following the script. Do you need a teleprompter?" Saxon stooped down a little. He tapped his tool on the Doctor's nose.
"You're supposed to say 'it's that sound, the sound in my head. What if I can help?'"
Owen could see the alien freezing in shock.
"W-what if I can?" the Doctor recovered.
Saxon scoffed.
"But you can't! You won't. You'll try, but there's two to help now!" Saxon patted Jack on his right cheek.
"He doesn't hear it." The Doctor sounded stunned. "That was your doing. Your making. Master, I can help-"
"Oh, how to shut him up?"
Owen spied Gwen gesturing with her fingers, unseen by the guards, with the number five. Owen checked their guards. They were riveted by whatever Saxon was babbling about Lazarus and whatnot. Owen gave a small nod and saw Tosh do the same.
Gwen's fingers closed, then opened to five.
"…the Doctor's biological code…"
Owen saw Tosh's left foot shift weight. Owen looked over and found Ianto was staring at him. Ianto nodded.
Gwen's hand fisted then opened to four.
Saxon pranced over to the metal case, which he unlatched with a flourish. The case screeched open like a clamshell, revealing Jack's odd stasis jar and that bloody, detached hand.
"Another hundred years?" Saxon shook his tool in the air. "Oh, why stop there? Let's go all the way. Nine hundred!"
Saxon lashed out his arm with the screwdriver and a strange sound like the backfire of a car exploded out of his tool. There was no light. No beam, but the Doctor was uplifted into the air and he contorted, blurred, writhed, screamed. Tosh gasped. Gwen's hand went slack in shock, her countdown forgotten. One of the hostages cried out in terror, unsure what was happening, how things went so wrong. The dark orbs danced around them all in delight.
Oh God.
…thrum-thrum…
The headache had returned full force the minute they entered the bridge. It hurt. It overwhelmed. He could hear his name from afar. Calling, like an echo.
His head hurt. It hurt a lot.
Whispers filled the spaces in-between the pulsating pounding, whispers that told him to move, whispers that commanded him, moved him…
He…what was he doing?
…thrum-thrum…
Leave me alone, Jack thought he could hear himself plead. It felt like he was staring down at himself from afar.
…thrum…
There was someone screaming. Pain. It was the sound of pain. His name was called out again, this time anguished.
Jack's eyes cleared and he saw Ianto on his knees, Martha by him, but they weren't looking at him. They were looking at-
…thr-
His arm snaked around the Master's throat, his right hand thrusting out to grab the screwdriver he recognized and shoved until it pointed towards the ceiling. Something screeched. The Doctor stopped screaming. Metal splintered. Floating balls winked out around them.
"You dare defy your Doctor?" the Master snarled. He twisted in Jack's grasp.
"You're not him!" Jack shot back even though something in his head wailed at him to stop.
One twist, one snap to his neck and it would be over…
A woman shrieked, more in anger than fear and Jack felt something hard and stiff and molten hot shoved into his back. His arm slackened. Saxon wrenched free, his eyes almost black with rage.
"Loathsome creature."
Jack saw golden hair, a flash of a pale face splattered with blood before he staggered back. Rose?
When he numbly looked down, he saw a bloody dagger tip was sticking out of his right shoulder.
"Jack!" It wasn't clear who screamed.
Jack felt the fire cutting into him slide out from behind. The knife tip vanished, scorching as it departed in one scalding stroke.
His knees buckled.
Ianto was by Jack, catching him as he fell. They landed heavily on the steps.
Jack could feel Ianto's hands trying to stem the blood bubbling out of his shoulder, his back. He could feel something hot and sticky spreading all over him. But all Jack could do was stare at the crumpled form on the floor.
What had he done?
"Doctor!" Martha stumbled to the body.
An old man, over a hundred, weakly raised his head. He couldn't do anything more.
"I've got you," Martha said tearfully as she clung to the Doctor's arm.
Harold Saxon stood over Ianto and Jack, his eyes hard.
"Well…" Saxon seethed. "Déjà vu." Saxon checked over his shoulder at the Doctor. "One hundred years it is, then."
Ianto glared up at him.
Saxon pulled his mouth back into a smirk.
"Young Ianto Jones. You surprise me with your tenacity." Saxon considered him. "I underestimated your role in his timeline."
"Where's my family?" Martha demanded from behind. She stared up at Saxon, unafraid.
"I hoped you would ask that," Saxon exclaimed, spinning around. He whipped his arm towards the back.
"Flown straight from prison…"
The doors burst opened and Martha gasped as she stood. A small trio of prisoners were shoved inside to join Gwen and the others.
"Mum," Martha breathed.
"I'm sorry," Martha's mother sobbed as she stood there.
Jack leaned heavily on Ianto.
"When there's a chance," Jack whispered into Ianto's ear. He slipped his key and the crystal he must have taken from the Doctor into Ianto's pocket. "Get the others and teleport."
Ianto jerked and stared at Jack with horror.
"We can't stop him," Jack whispered. "Not like this. Not with the Doctor…" Jack swallowed. "Ianto, I didn't realize what I was doing, I-"
Ianto shook his head. "You fought it in the end."
Jack stared at the feeble Doctor staring with defiance at Saxon. The Doctor could barely sit up. This Doctor wouldn't burst into running anytime soon.
"The Toclafane," the aged Doctor wheezed. He drew Saxon's attention away from Martha. "What are they?"
Saxon's expression softened as he looked at the Doctor with an odd fondness that gave Jack a sick feeling in his stomach. Saxon stooped down and patted the Doctor's chest.
"Ah, you've always asked this, Doctor and if I tell you the truth," Saxon sighed. He looked sincerely sorry. "It would break your hearts."
Two orbs blinked into the air above them.
"Is it time?"
"Is it really time?"
"Is the machine singing?"
Saxon checked his watch. He smiled darkly and bound up the stairs.
"So! Earthlings," Saxon sneered towards the cameras still diligently filming. He gestured for Lucy to join him. She ascended the stairs in her bloody cream suit, licking her crimson tipped fingers. Saxon brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes before returning his attentions back to the camera crew.
"Basically, um…" Saxon threw up his hands and shrugged. "End of the world again."
Saxon raised his arm high with his screwdriver.
"Here come the drums!" Saxon roared.
The ship around them shook and Jack heard a wail in his head that he knew the Doctor could hear as well as the TARDIS screamed defiantly but bit by bit, her defenses collapsed and yielded to the monstrosity that caged it.
Pop music-the Master's sick sense of humor-blared as the sky visible from the large portholes grew violet and crimson dark.
"Down you go kids!" Saxon cheered into the microphone by the controls. He gestured wildly at the window as streams of black globes zipped down from the sky. He grabbed his wife by the waist and spun her around. Saxon slapped a dial and a mix of screams and frantic radio calls filled the room.
"Destroy one-tenth of the pop-"
"Now!" Gwen hollered.
There was scuffling, shoving, shouting from everyone. Saxon spun away from the window. Ianto grabbed Jack by the arm, pulling him up. Owen hauled Martha up from the Doctor.
"Here!" Ianto shouted as he pushed back his sleeve and flipped open the wrist strap.
"Stop them!" Saxon roared.
The Valiant shook as millions of Toclafane still came pouring from the torn sky. Jack could see the Doctor shoving Martha away to go, just as a guard grabbed Tosh when she darted by. She shouted.
"Doctor!" Martha pleaded as Gwen held on to her.
"Tosh!" Owen made to get her.
Jack slapped a hand on Ianto's strap to activate it and something beeped as Jack staggered away to grab Tosh.
"Not this time, Ms. Jones!"
Jack had just sailed a fist across the guard's chin, yanking Tosh close to him. He turned, just in time to see Saxon aim his screwdriver towards Martha. The Doctor shouted shakily in real fear. Jack didn't think. He acted.
Even as he could feel blood pumping out of his body, Jack lunged towards Saxon on the stairs.
Things happened all at once.
"Jack!" Ianto started to surge forward.
"Ianto! Don't!" Gwen shouted and she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back.
The screwdriver fired.
The wrist strap beeped for a second time.
A small rift began to form sluggishly around the four.
Jack felt himself slammed back onto a wall by guards just as an amber beam shot across, hitting Ianto square in the chest.
"Ianto!"
Ianto fell back heavily against Gwen and Owen, his face frozen in shock. As soon as the others caught him, they blinked out.
"Ianto!" Tosh sobbed out.
Jack screamed. He twisted to get away from the guards. He lashed out, breaking one's nose hard enough that he could feel the bone piercing up into the brain. The guard dropped. Another howled when Jack's fist slammed hard on his spine and he heard it crack.
More and more came to pin him down. They tackled him to the floor. Tosh was cursing at them. Jack felt his right shoulder pop. Someone slammed his chin hard to the ground and Jack found himself unable to move, staring at a single droplet on the ground.
"Well," Saxon said, amused. He stepped in front of Jack. His well-polished shoes tapped in front of him.
Saxon grunted. "How quickly you forget who came back for you."
Saxon's shoes blurred as blood loss and something else-oh God, Ianto, not Ianto-turned his body slowly into lead.
"So quick to help Gramps here." Saxon gestured them to lift Jack's head.
Jack said nothing, his eyes on Saxon.
"Let me tell you a secret, my Captain," Saxon whispered.
Everything was fading. Jack couldn't move his head away as Saxon brushed his mouth across Jack's ear.
"The Doctor was never going to come back for you."
Something turned to ice, sharpened around his chest and choked him.
Saxon felt his knife wound on his back and dug his thumb into it. Jack jerked as the bleeding renewed, emptying quickly to the ground. Jack gasped, his chest tightening.
"It will be fine, my Captain," Saxon murmured. He petted Jack's hair. "It will all be good."
Jack's eyes fluttered shut, everything darkening, narrowing to the blood spot on the floor until even that was gone when darkness came.
Ianto…
Chapter 38 "The Year That Never Was" Act I
Additional Notes: Many thanks to soullessminion for betaing this chapter. And trtmx for her magic trick that saved my sanity! LOL.
Pairing: Jack/OMC, Jack/?, Jack/Ianto eventually, het and slash
Rating: NC-17 (betaed)
Summary: He left Jack on the game station. Abandoned. But then…he came back…different. An AU look on what happens if things happened differently. Doctor Who 'verse with Torchwood later on. Be sure to read the warnings.
Warnings: Please read each chapter's individual warnings. Some parts down the road may briefly mention non-con, abuse, and/or violence. Dark in the beginning. Please note there are some dark thoughts as my boys are broken…for now. Each chapter will be labeled for your convenience.
Author's Notes: Please note this is an AU that will cross over DW to TW season one. I'm probably spoiling my own story, but it will eventually be Janto. There's a bit of a journey first. I hope you enjoy. I'm working on this and intend to post regularly every other day. And again, I always believe in happy endings. So without further ado…
Disclaimer: RTD and BBC owns them. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Warning For This Chapter: strong language, dark, angsty, VIOLENCE
Notes For This Chapter: Note there are parallels to DW's "The Sound of Drums"
Prologue + Ch , Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18. Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26, Ch 27, Ch 28, Ch 29, Ch 30, Ch 31, Ch 32, Ch 33, Ch 34, Ch 35, Ch 36, Ch 37 Act 1/9, Ch 37 Act 2/9, Ch 37 Act 3/9, Ch 37 Act 4/9, Ch 37 Act 5/9, Ch 37 Act 6/9 1/2, Ch 37 Act 6/9 2/2, Ch 37 Act 7/9, Ch 37 Act 8/9, Ch 37 Conclusion 1/2
Master Fic List: here
Chapter 37 "The Sound of Drums"
Conclusion 2/2: "Here come the drums!"
Valiant
Somewhere above London
Present day…
There was no signal. At least not the one they'd originally planned.
It was suppose to be Jack's wolf whistle.
Instead, it was a woman screaming.
"Come on," Owen shouted. The UNIT guard had ducked inside. It was their cue.
No one questioned. No one argued they should wait.
Owen could sense Gwen and Tosh right behind him as they pushed through the doors, striking the door on the guards from behind, taking their guns as they fell. People were screaming. Some were cowering against the walls. Owen heard Gwen shouting for people to get down. Where was President Winters?
"Well, well, our heroes have arrived."
As one, they all aimed their captured guns towards Saxon, who stood center of the melee, atop some stairs like a vicar on a pulpit, his arms braced on either side of the wooden rails. His wife, whom Owen thought of as loopy Lucy, trotted past people trying to make themselves small targets and joined Saxon on his elevated station. She was biting her lower lip, her heels tapping nervously on the steps.
Saxon smiled at them, unflinching at their weapons. In fact, he looked delighted.
"How fast do you think you can fire, Torchwood, before they," Saxon gestured towards the armed black-suited men scattered around the room, "fire on everyone else?"
Owen clenched his teeth as he studied the eight guards distributed around the room. Even some of the UNIT guards were being forced to keep their hands up, their faces too white with shock over whatever they had seen to be of much use.
Saxon pursed his lips. He clasped his hands together.
"Oh, how I hate these tense and indecisive moments. What to do? What to do? Never a rousing soundtrack to really up the angst here. Would have made things much more interesting." Saxon reached behind him and snagged his wife closer. She wrapped an arm around his middle, a golden lady against Saxon's black.
"Darling," Saxon drawled as he smiled at them in the back. "We're at a standoff." Saxon looked towards the cameras still filming. "How dramatic." He pulled Lucy tight to his side. Saxon dipped his eyes towards her. "Any suggestions, my dear?"
Lucy's eyes were surprisingly clear compared to the last time they had seen her. She tapped a finger to her red lips before waving her finger in the air like some stupid wand.
"Um, kill that one," Lucy pointed to a blonde cowering by a table leg.
Saxon snapped his fingers. "Guard."
The woman sobbed as she was yanked to her feet by the hair. She tried to drag her feet so they couldn't get her standing upright. She was begging and pleading as the guard pressed a gun to the back of her head.
"All right!" Gwen shouted. She raised the hand not holding the gun.
"Gwen!" Owen snapped.
"Lower your weapons," Gwen hissed. Her eyes darted towards Saxon, then slid around the room.
Owen gave the room a quick glance as well.
"Owen," Gwen repeated as she and Tosh stooped down slowly to set their guns on the floor.
"Fine," Owen spat out. He did the same. He straightened and put his hands up.
"Alright," Gwen said calmly. "We've lowered our weapons. Tell the guard, don't shoot."
Saxon tilted his head as if thinking it over before he said to the guard "Shoot."
"No!" they all screamed and it was almost loud enough to cover the loud gunshot. It was certainly loud enough to cover the sound of the girl's body dropping to the ground.
Someone in the back retched.
"You son of a bitch!" Owen exploded even as he searched the room. Where the hell were they? "We dropped our weapons!"
"You didn't have to shoot!" Tosh shouted, horrified.
Gwen, speechless, only stared at the girl's corpse.
Saxon placed his hand to his throat, his eyes wide.
"Oooh, you said don't shoot!" Saxon tsked and stuck a finger in his ear. "My hearing must be going. My bad!"
"You piece of-"
"Captain, stop him."
Owen stopped short, unsure why Saxon abruptly waved a hand in front of him.
Out of nowhere, the Doctor reappeared, the crystal yanked from his grasp and-What the fuck?
"Jack, what are you doing?" Gwen cried.
Jack stood there, his stiff back towards them, his hands pulling the Doctor's arms behind him and forcing him to his knees.
"Ah, Doctor," Saxon practically purred. "And my Captain. Reunited at last." Saxon laughed and clapped his hands. Saxon grinned towards the cameras.
"And we didn't have to wait twenty five years on the telly!"
"Stop this! Stop this now!" the Doctor roared, struggling to break free of Jack's grip but Jack never even stirred.
"As if a perception filter is gonna work on me," Saxon scoffed. He glanced towards his left.
"You can be as still as mice, but I know you're there. Show yourselves to the rest of the kiddies."
"Jack!" Ianto cried out as he pulled his key over his head. Everyone whipped their heads around, startled to see a man materialize in front of them. The idiot would have charged Saxon but Martha reappeared and grabbed his left arm with both of hers.
The guards, stunned at first, recovered fast enough to surround Ianto and Martha.
Saxon patted Lucy's hand on his hip.
"You know," Saxon mused. He sneered at Martha. "Even now I still can't decide if you're the girlie or the freak."
"What have you done to Jack?" Ianto shouted. He grunted as a guard shoved him down to his knees.
Owen realized Jack never turned around, never acknowledged Ianto and Gwen's calls. He stood there, perfect posture and all, a statue holding onto the Doctor.
"What have I done to him?" Saxon's eyes bulged and he tilted his head back and roared uncontrollably with a glee that raised the hairs on the back of Owen's neck. "How cliché is that? You childish ape! What have I done to him? What have I not done to him?"
"Master, just calm down." The bloody Doctor was still trying to talk to him. "Just look at what you're doing, just stop." The Doctor writhed to break free from Jack but Jack was like rock. He never moved. "If you could see yourself!"
Saxon pulled out what looked like the same kind of sonic screwdriver.
"I can see myself," Saxon murmured. His face twisted. "Sometimes all I see is myself." He turned towards the cameras again.
"Excuse me. I have to interrupt your program. A little personal business. Back in a minute." Saxon bared his teeth. "Don't touch that dial now, you hear?"
Lucy laughed.
Saxon considered Jack.
"You can let him go, Captain."
No response, but the unexpected release dropped the Doctor into an ungainly pile to the floor.
"Jack!" Gwen shouted. She gasped as a guard tapped her shoulder with the butt of her gun.
Ianto just stared, aghast. His face was a pasty white as he tracked Jack joining Saxon to stand over the Doctor. Jack never looked towards their direction or Ianto's.
"The Arcateen crystal," the Doctor hissed. He tilted his head up at them standing over him like a panel of judges. "You did this to him."
"No, no, no," Saxon waved a hand in front of him. "You're not following the script. Do you need a teleprompter?" Saxon stooped down a little. He tapped his tool on the Doctor's nose.
"You're supposed to say 'it's that sound, the sound in my head. What if I can help?'"
Owen could see the alien freezing in shock.
"W-what if I can?" the Doctor recovered.
Saxon scoffed.
"But you can't! You won't. You'll try, but there's two to help now!" Saxon patted Jack on his right cheek.
"He doesn't hear it." The Doctor sounded stunned. "That was your doing. Your making. Master, I can help-"
"Oh, how to shut him up?"
Owen spied Gwen gesturing with her fingers, unseen by the guards, with the number five. Owen checked their guards. They were riveted by whatever Saxon was babbling about Lazarus and whatnot. Owen gave a small nod and saw Tosh do the same.
Gwen's fingers closed, then opened to five.
"…the Doctor's biological code…"
Owen saw Tosh's left foot shift weight. Owen looked over and found Ianto was staring at him. Ianto nodded.
Gwen's hand fisted then opened to four.
Saxon pranced over to the metal case, which he unlatched with a flourish. The case screeched open like a clamshell, revealing Jack's odd stasis jar and that bloody, detached hand.
"Another hundred years?" Saxon shook his tool in the air. "Oh, why stop there? Let's go all the way. Nine hundred!"
Saxon lashed out his arm with the screwdriver and a strange sound like the backfire of a car exploded out of his tool. There was no light. No beam, but the Doctor was uplifted into the air and he contorted, blurred, writhed, screamed. Tosh gasped. Gwen's hand went slack in shock, her countdown forgotten. One of the hostages cried out in terror, unsure what was happening, how things went so wrong. The dark orbs danced around them all in delight.
Oh God.
…thrum-thrum…
The headache had returned full force the minute they entered the bridge. It hurt. It overwhelmed. He could hear his name from afar. Calling, like an echo.
His head hurt. It hurt a lot.
Whispers filled the spaces in-between the pulsating pounding, whispers that told him to move, whispers that commanded him, moved him…
He…what was he doing?
…thrum-thrum…
Leave me alone, Jack thought he could hear himself plead. It felt like he was staring down at himself from afar.
…thrum…
There was someone screaming. Pain. It was the sound of pain. His name was called out again, this time anguished.
Jack's eyes cleared and he saw Ianto on his knees, Martha by him, but they weren't looking at him. They were looking at-
…thr-
His arm snaked around the Master's throat, his right hand thrusting out to grab the screwdriver he recognized and shoved until it pointed towards the ceiling. Something screeched. The Doctor stopped screaming. Metal splintered. Floating balls winked out around them.
"You dare defy your Doctor?" the Master snarled. He twisted in Jack's grasp.
"You're not him!" Jack shot back even though something in his head wailed at him to stop.
One twist, one snap to his neck and it would be over…
A woman shrieked, more in anger than fear and Jack felt something hard and stiff and molten hot shoved into his back. His arm slackened. Saxon wrenched free, his eyes almost black with rage.
"Loathsome creature."
Jack saw golden hair, a flash of a pale face splattered with blood before he staggered back. Rose?
When he numbly looked down, he saw a bloody dagger tip was sticking out of his right shoulder.
"Jack!" It wasn't clear who screamed.
Jack felt the fire cutting into him slide out from behind. The knife tip vanished, scorching as it departed in one scalding stroke.
His knees buckled.
Ianto was by Jack, catching him as he fell. They landed heavily on the steps.
Jack could feel Ianto's hands trying to stem the blood bubbling out of his shoulder, his back. He could feel something hot and sticky spreading all over him. But all Jack could do was stare at the crumpled form on the floor.
What had he done?
"Doctor!" Martha stumbled to the body.
An old man, over a hundred, weakly raised his head. He couldn't do anything more.
"I've got you," Martha said tearfully as she clung to the Doctor's arm.
Harold Saxon stood over Ianto and Jack, his eyes hard.
"Well…" Saxon seethed. "Déjà vu." Saxon checked over his shoulder at the Doctor. "One hundred years it is, then."
Ianto glared up at him.
Saxon pulled his mouth back into a smirk.
"Young Ianto Jones. You surprise me with your tenacity." Saxon considered him. "I underestimated your role in his timeline."
"Where's my family?" Martha demanded from behind. She stared up at Saxon, unafraid.
"I hoped you would ask that," Saxon exclaimed, spinning around. He whipped his arm towards the back.
"Flown straight from prison…"
The doors burst opened and Martha gasped as she stood. A small trio of prisoners were shoved inside to join Gwen and the others.
"Mum," Martha breathed.
"I'm sorry," Martha's mother sobbed as she stood there.
Jack leaned heavily on Ianto.
"When there's a chance," Jack whispered into Ianto's ear. He slipped his key and the crystal he must have taken from the Doctor into Ianto's pocket. "Get the others and teleport."
Ianto jerked and stared at Jack with horror.
"We can't stop him," Jack whispered. "Not like this. Not with the Doctor…" Jack swallowed. "Ianto, I didn't realize what I was doing, I-"
Ianto shook his head. "You fought it in the end."
Jack stared at the feeble Doctor staring with defiance at Saxon. The Doctor could barely sit up. This Doctor wouldn't burst into running anytime soon.
"The Toclafane," the aged Doctor wheezed. He drew Saxon's attention away from Martha. "What are they?"
Saxon's expression softened as he looked at the Doctor with an odd fondness that gave Jack a sick feeling in his stomach. Saxon stooped down and patted the Doctor's chest.
"Ah, you've always asked this, Doctor and if I tell you the truth," Saxon sighed. He looked sincerely sorry. "It would break your hearts."
Two orbs blinked into the air above them.
"Is it time?"
"Is it really time?"
"Is the machine singing?"
Saxon checked his watch. He smiled darkly and bound up the stairs.
"So! Earthlings," Saxon sneered towards the cameras still diligently filming. He gestured for Lucy to join him. She ascended the stairs in her bloody cream suit, licking her crimson tipped fingers. Saxon brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes before returning his attentions back to the camera crew.
"Basically, um…" Saxon threw up his hands and shrugged. "End of the world again."
Saxon raised his arm high with his screwdriver.
"Here come the drums!" Saxon roared.
The ship around them shook and Jack heard a wail in his head that he knew the Doctor could hear as well as the TARDIS screamed defiantly but bit by bit, her defenses collapsed and yielded to the monstrosity that caged it.
Pop music-the Master's sick sense of humor-blared as the sky visible from the large portholes grew violet and crimson dark.
"Down you go kids!" Saxon cheered into the microphone by the controls. He gestured wildly at the window as streams of black globes zipped down from the sky. He grabbed his wife by the waist and spun her around. Saxon slapped a dial and a mix of screams and frantic radio calls filled the room.
"Destroy one-tenth of the pop-"
"Now!" Gwen hollered.
There was scuffling, shoving, shouting from everyone. Saxon spun away from the window. Ianto grabbed Jack by the arm, pulling him up. Owen hauled Martha up from the Doctor.
"Here!" Ianto shouted as he pushed back his sleeve and flipped open the wrist strap.
"Stop them!" Saxon roared.
The Valiant shook as millions of Toclafane still came pouring from the torn sky. Jack could see the Doctor shoving Martha away to go, just as a guard grabbed Tosh when she darted by. She shouted.
"Doctor!" Martha pleaded as Gwen held on to her.
"Tosh!" Owen made to get her.
Jack slapped a hand on Ianto's strap to activate it and something beeped as Jack staggered away to grab Tosh.
"Not this time, Ms. Jones!"
Jack had just sailed a fist across the guard's chin, yanking Tosh close to him. He turned, just in time to see Saxon aim his screwdriver towards Martha. The Doctor shouted shakily in real fear. Jack didn't think. He acted.
Even as he could feel blood pumping out of his body, Jack lunged towards Saxon on the stairs.
Things happened all at once.
"Jack!" Ianto started to surge forward.
"Ianto! Don't!" Gwen shouted and she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back.
The screwdriver fired.
The wrist strap beeped for a second time.
A small rift began to form sluggishly around the four.
Jack felt himself slammed back onto a wall by guards just as an amber beam shot across, hitting Ianto square in the chest.
"Ianto!"
Ianto fell back heavily against Gwen and Owen, his face frozen in shock. As soon as the others caught him, they blinked out.
"Ianto!" Tosh sobbed out.
Jack screamed. He twisted to get away from the guards. He lashed out, breaking one's nose hard enough that he could feel the bone piercing up into the brain. The guard dropped. Another howled when Jack's fist slammed hard on his spine and he heard it crack.
More and more came to pin him down. They tackled him to the floor. Tosh was cursing at them. Jack felt his right shoulder pop. Someone slammed his chin hard to the ground and Jack found himself unable to move, staring at a single droplet on the ground.
"Well," Saxon said, amused. He stepped in front of Jack. His well-polished shoes tapped in front of him.
Saxon grunted. "How quickly you forget who came back for you."
Saxon's shoes blurred as blood loss and something else-oh God, Ianto, not Ianto-turned his body slowly into lead.
"So quick to help Gramps here." Saxon gestured them to lift Jack's head.
Jack said nothing, his eyes on Saxon.
"Let me tell you a secret, my Captain," Saxon whispered.
Everything was fading. Jack couldn't move his head away as Saxon brushed his mouth across Jack's ear.
"The Doctor was never going to come back for you."
Something turned to ice, sharpened around his chest and choked him.
Saxon felt his knife wound on his back and dug his thumb into it. Jack jerked as the bleeding renewed, emptying quickly to the ground. Jack gasped, his chest tightening.
"It will be fine, my Captain," Saxon murmured. He petted Jack's hair. "It will all be good."
Jack's eyes fluttered shut, everything darkening, narrowing to the blood spot on the floor until even that was gone when darkness came.
Ianto…
Chapter 38 "The Year That Never Was" Act I
Additional Notes: Many thanks to soullessminion for betaing this chapter. And trtmx for her magic trick that saved my sanity! LOL.