Fic: The Oncoming Storm (Slash, AU, Janto 38/40 Act 1/5)
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, angsty, VIOLENCE
Notes For This Chapter: This is all hypothetical at this point as we delve into "The Year That Never Was". There is no proof or canon hints on what may have happened. I may be right, I may be wrong.
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
Master Fic List: here
Chapter 38 "The Year That Never Was"
Act I
Somewhere
Present day, Version 1…
Like before, there was a sense of being there yet not, his breath paused in status quo, his awareness of time suspended.
Then, with a snap, time clicked. He landed too hard on something cold and wet. It hurt. He stumbled.
"Is everyone all right?" Ianto gasped. "Martha? Gwen? Owen?" He staggered to a somewhat straight position; his fingers tugged his jacket around him tighter.
"I'm fine," Martha chattered.
Gwen looked shaken. She'd fallen on her knees and was still down on the dirt, gawping at the snow around her. "Where are we?" Gwen demanded.
"How the hell should I know? Jack set the coordinates," Owen grated out. Owen still had his fists up. He lowered them after a few squints at the flurries surrounding them.
"We can't stay out here. It's a flipping blizzard!"
"Fine idea," Gwen snapped. "But where exactly is here?"
Ianto staggered away from them and blinked at the ice-crusted precipice that loomed over him like a…well…like a mountain.
Ianto stared at his hands that, only moments before, were warm from Jack's as he supported him. There was a shout; Tosh wasn't with them, Jack's determined face, and his hand slipped out of Ianto's before anyone could react. Jack. Oh God, Jack. They'd left him behind. Ianto had let go of his hand as Jack went for Tosh and everything fell apart.
Jack's name was still stuck in his throat, a shout left uncompleted. His hand with Jack's blood on it flexed and opened; still trying to grab for something that was no longer there.
"Christ, I thought for sure Saxon skewered us with that flipping screwdriver of his."
"Jack's manipulator kicked in just in time," Martha gasped buttoning her jacket as high as it would go. "Otherwise…"
"We have to go back," Ianto said, fumbling as he flipped open the wrist strap. Jack's horrified face flashed behind his eyes. "Jack…" Ianto found his mouth stumbling for words, his fingers not working as well as they should. The numbness of the transport lingering longer than it should have. "He's still up there!"
"We left Tosh up there too," Gwen said tearfully. "God, we left them all on that ship."
His head spun. White flakes fell all around him. Ianto realized it was getting colder, yet not as cold as it should be, he thought idly. Parts of him felt too hot. He stared down at the device wrapped around his wrist.
"Do you know how to make that thing work?" Owen demanded. Owen shoved his hands under his armpits and stared across the distant expanse stamping his feet against the ground. His breath came out frosted on the chill air.
"No," Ianto whispered. He could feel himself swaying on his feet, his chest tight with the thought of Jack up there with Saxon. "I…he never told me."
"This doesn't look like Cardiff," Gwen fretted. Snow picked up by the wind blew past them. Gwen's hair was freckled with white. "Did we travel back in time? Or are we on another planet?"
"I don't think so." His voice came out thin. It was becoming hard to catch his breath. Ianto made an effort to steady his voice.
"Oh my God."
Gwen's voice dropped to a stunned whisper as she stared upward. Ianto tilted his face up and something colder than the snow ran down his neck sending a ripple through his body.
The sky was scarred with a pulsating tear. Black orbs rained out, cascading and filling the heavens with swirling, glowing globes like ink spilt across the sky.
"My pocket." Ianto dug at where Jack had slipped the key and crystal. His fingers kept missing the opening of his pocket for some reason. Uncoordinated and going numb.
The moment Ianto pulled out the two makeshift pendants, Martha snatched them from his tangled grasp.
"Put these on," Martha ordered. She practically threw them towards Gwen and Owen. "These should keep those things from seeing us."
Ianto felt for his own around his neck inside his shirt, reassured to feel the chill of the tiny metal key against his skin. He didn't relax until he saw his friends put theirs on as well.
Gwen gaped at the mountains, the snow, and the Toclafane slowly filling every part of the sky like a dark stain. They all watched anxiously as it swarmed out like an umbrella cloud but did not immediately descend.
Gwen gasped. "Oh God, Rhys! My parents!" She fumbled her mobile open. "It's not working! Does anyone have a signal? Come on, pick up!"
"Can we use that thing to get back up there?" Owen demanded. He gripped Ianto by the arm, wrenching him around. "Oi!"
Ianto blinked, dizzy with the questions and possibly the thin air from the altitude. He shook his head. "I don't know how it works. And I…" Ianto took in the frightening range of misty blue mountains. "And I think…those are the Himalaya Mountains." Why had Jack sent them here?
"What?" Owen exclaimed. "Shit good that'll do us. Did Jack want us to find a lot of yetis to help?"
"I don't know!" Ianto snapped back, the black mass gathering high overhead. It was too cold for this and getting colder by the second. His hands were shaking with it. "Jack sent us here, maybe to get us away from those things!"
"Oh right, we're safe from those things but we'll fucking freeze to death!"
"We have to find some place and fast!" Martha cut in, her voice harsher than Ianto had ever heard it before. She pointed to the sky. "Look!"
The dark stroke of swarming and writhing Toclafane had split up, like river outlets; thin lines of death forking off into different directions. One line curled in the sky bending towards them.
Owen swore. "I thought you said these things would hide us."
"If we remained quiet, Owen," Ianto shot back. He scanned their surroundings, his eyes caught by the wall of rock that stood behind them and the opening hidden under its shadow. "There! That cave over there!"
"Probably be eaten by a bear," Owen grumbled but he followed as they all ran for it.
"This way," Gwen urged, running towards the gloomy back of its interior. "I think this cave goes pretty dee-" Gwen suddenly screeched, arms flailing as if she was losing her balance.
Was there a drop? Ianto lunged for the closest arm he could reach, grabbed it, only to find he was being pulled instead.
"Ianto!" Martha shouted. She tried to grab him, but was too late. Ianto felt his foot slip, a dull throb became a sharp tearing pain in his shoulder as Gwen's weight pulled him forward and they fell-
Right through a wall.
The crash was jarring, but not as jarring as the realization that they hadn't fallen down a drop, but rather had fallen through a wall that wasn't really there. The warm air that greeted them struck them like a physical force.
"Shit." Owen must have plowed right through because he kept running until he skidded to a halt a meter away after bursting through with Martha.
"W-was that a hologram?" Martha gasped. She clutched the front of her jacket as she gulped for air.
Ianto got up shakily with Martha's help. He gaped around at the surprisingly warm cavern they found themselves in. It was small and cramped, but clearly man-made as the space lit up upon their entry.
"Hello."
Ianto breathed "Jack." When he spun around, however, his smile faded.
A blue tinged Jack flickered in front of them, on the false wall they went through.
Jack stood slightly above ground, wearing his greatcoat, his light blue shirt, grinning broadly at a spot beyond them. His eyes looked over their heads, possibly at a camera.
"If you're seeing this, that means the DNA reader has scanned you all and found I wasn't with you. Otherwise," Jack shrugged and winked, "I would tell you all this in person and trust me when I tell you, you're missing out." Jack posed and gave a flip salute above his brow.
Ianto smiled tightly. His hand rose to touch Jack, but when it went through Jack's chest, Gwen made a choking sound.
"What you're standing in is what remains of Torchwood Four."
Eyes widening, Ianto stared at Jack. He could hear the others spinning around for a second look. Martha held Ianto's right arm with both hands now. Her grip hurt.
"Torchwood Four went MIA during Alex Hopkins' command. It was believed to have been swallowed up in a rift quake and…" Even in the blue projection light, Ianto could see regret dull Jack's eyes.
"It rematerialized inside this mountain around the time when I joined your team. The six members of Torchwood Four…" Jack sighed and the lack of sound or the sensation of breath made Ianto's chest ache in sharp pains.
"I regret to say they didn't make it."
Gwen abruptly screamed and everyone turned around to see her pressing her face into Owen's shoulder. Owen gaped wide-eyed, white-lipped at the wall of icy granite, part of it scraped clean of frost by Gwen's hand. Silhouettes of trapped faces stared back at them like from a warped funhouse mirror. Outstretched seeking fingers pushed through rock but never broke the surface.
"Oh my God," Martha's voice trembled.
Ianto gulped, his head cottony and slow, as he turned back towards Jack, who never paused.
"…letter, Hopkins said he saw Torchwood in the Himalayas. Rather than dismantle Torchwood Four, I arranged to have this base supplied, wired it with a short term power source and set it in hibernation mode, to reactivate when it detected one of your DNA imprints."
Jack's mouth crinkled and he looked sad.
"Jack," Ianto pleaded even as the fatigue pulled at him.
"I don't know why you're here and why I'm not, but I'm sorry. I pray this base will see you through whatever has happened to Earth. Good luck…you may be our only hope."
And just as abrupt as his arrival, Jack's image flickered silently out of focus.
Ianto took a few haltering steps forward until he stood at the spot where Jack's image had been.
"At least he didn't ask for Obi-Wan Kenobi," Ianto muttered, but he couldn't find the humor in it to smile. His eyes filled as he opened his hands unconsciously trying to feel any essence of Jack left behind in the air. There was nothing.
"Did you know about this?" Owen rasped, his voice wavering like he'd forgotten how to speak. Gwen was now by the wall, her fingers lingering on the faces, her face contorted with grief.
"Christ, Jack should have told us. We might have been able to do something for them-"
"Take a look around you, Owen," Martha pointed out, her voice just as unsteady. "Everything looks like it grew out of rock. The computers, the chairs…They…" Martha swallowed, "they must have materialized inside the mountain."
"They never had a chance," Ianto whispered. His heart pounded. "They never saw it coming…Jack had this place repaired so if we got separated, Torchwood would still be available to us." Ianto pressed a hand to his chest. There was a roaring in his ears he couldn't ignore any longer. Jack, Tosh, Martha's family, the Doctor…they were up there with a mad man. "Jack got us out so we could have a chance while he…he…" Ianto gritted his teeth. It hurt so much. A sharp pain abruptly cut through his upper right shoulder, so sudden, so acute, Ianto groaned.
"Ianto?" Owen was suddenly by his left ear.
Ianto turned his increasingly heavy head towards him.
Owen narrowed his eyes on him. His gaze lowered. Owen abruptly pushed open Ianto's jacket and Ianto shivered. It was cold and yet he could feel the damp sweat trickling down his arm.
Owen swore. "Sit down." His arm went around Ianto's shoulders.
"Why?" Ianto wheezed stupidly. The mountain air was making him so tired. Martha was suddenly running past them, deeper into the morbid space, Gwen behind her as they opened doors and boxes in a frenzy.
"What do you mean why, you prat?" Owen looked scared for some reason. Or was he angry? It was hard to tell with Owen sometimes. "You should have said something!"
"About what?" Ianto blinked when he realized he was slurring. Ianto pulled his hand away and stared blankly at the slick red palm.
"Oh," Ianto mumbled.
His knees folded.
"Don't you dare," Owen hissed as he dropped, catching Ianto to him. "Don't you dare do this right now."
Ianto coughed and thought he tasted something coppery in his mouth. He groaned in pain when Owen's hands pressed down on a spot around his right shoulder.
"I always said you were one lucky sod. No way that teleport didn't catch you in time. You hear me, Ianto Jones? No dying today. I ain't having none of that"
Ianto gasped when Owen tore open his undershirt and piled folds of gauze over his shoulder.
"Shut up," Owen said, but his hands bellied the harshness in his voice. He cupped a hand under Ianto's chin and tilted his head up. Owen was talking to someone past his head.
"It's all right." Ianto wheezed, but the only reply he received was a light kiss to his brow as Gwen's hair brushed his forehead.
"Quiet, Jonesy," Owen grumbled. "Always have to have the last word."
"J-ones," Ianto ground out as Owen reached a hand under his shoulder and felt for the laser's exit wound. Ianto's legs kicked out before he could stop himself. It burned! Yes, the laser on the device! It had knocked him back, back into the beam of the transport. He-God, and…the blue eyes had widened as the blur took him…Jack saw him. Jack!
"We…we have to get Jack out of there," Ianto wheezed. "W-we…we have to…no time!" Ianto clawed Owen's arm.
"Aye, save your breath," Owen murmured. He pried Ianto's hand off his sleeve carefully and set it on his belly.
Martha was tugging off his jacket, Gwen was holding his hand, and heedless of the bloody handprint left on her shirt, and Owen, well, Ianto was afraid to watch what he was doing.
"You'll be fine, sweetheart," Gwen soothed. Her eyes were red and she looked a mess but she patted his hand like it was a soft puppy. "Owen's an ass but he's a good doctor."
"I'll agree…with the first…part," Ianto coughed and it hitched and wouldn't stop. Martha tucked his rolled up jacket under his head.
"Oi, that's enough cheek from you." Owen patted his shoulder when he bent back over him. His eyes didn't match the smile on his face. "Don't go dyin' on us now, Jonesy."
Ianto found he didn't have the strength to correct him again. He watched as Owen rummaged through a medical kit that looked far too old and outdated to be of any use.
Jack should have let him handle the requisitioning of the supplies, Ianto thought fuzzily. Jack should have told him. Jack should have stayed with them.
Ianto stared up at Martha as he tried not to think about how sharp the light had been that had stabbed through him or how much sharper the scalpel looked in Owen's grasp.
Panic seized in his chest. Ianto tilted his head back.
"Martha," Ianto gasped.
Martha smiled tightly down at him and nodded. She leaned down and whispered tightly against his ear. "We're coming back for them. I swear it."
Something released in his chest. Ianto nodded and hoped the gratitude was clear in his eyes. She above all the others understood.
Gwen was saying something, something that sounded like a prayer. Ianto thought he could hear the chirps and buzzing of Toclafane heading towards their shelter.
Everyone's voices were sounding farther and farther away. Someone was shouting his name. Owen sounded angrier and angrier and Ianto didn't know why. He was too tired to care. His shoulder screamed in agony after being numb for so long and he had a final thought as he felt himself being smothered by darkness.
I never should have let go of his hand.
Act II
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, angsty, VIOLENCE
Notes For This Chapter: This is all hypothetical at this point as we delve into "The Year That Never Was". There is no proof or canon hints on what may have happened. I may be right, I may be wrong.
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
Master Fic List: here
Chapter 38 "The Year That Never Was"
Act I
Somewhere
Present day, Version 1…
Like before, there was a sense of being there yet not, his breath paused in status quo, his awareness of time suspended.
Then, with a snap, time clicked. He landed too hard on something cold and wet. It hurt. He stumbled.
"Is everyone all right?" Ianto gasped. "Martha? Gwen? Owen?" He staggered to a somewhat straight position; his fingers tugged his jacket around him tighter.
"I'm fine," Martha chattered.
Gwen looked shaken. She'd fallen on her knees and was still down on the dirt, gawping at the snow around her. "Where are we?" Gwen demanded.
"How the hell should I know? Jack set the coordinates," Owen grated out. Owen still had his fists up. He lowered them after a few squints at the flurries surrounding them.
"We can't stay out here. It's a flipping blizzard!"
"Fine idea," Gwen snapped. "But where exactly is here?"
Ianto staggered away from them and blinked at the ice-crusted precipice that loomed over him like a…well…like a mountain.
Ianto stared at his hands that, only moments before, were warm from Jack's as he supported him. There was a shout; Tosh wasn't with them, Jack's determined face, and his hand slipped out of Ianto's before anyone could react. Jack. Oh God, Jack. They'd left him behind. Ianto had let go of his hand as Jack went for Tosh and everything fell apart.
Jack's name was still stuck in his throat, a shout left uncompleted. His hand with Jack's blood on it flexed and opened; still trying to grab for something that was no longer there.
"Christ, I thought for sure Saxon skewered us with that flipping screwdriver of his."
"Jack's manipulator kicked in just in time," Martha gasped buttoning her jacket as high as it would go. "Otherwise…"
"We have to go back," Ianto said, fumbling as he flipped open the wrist strap. Jack's horrified face flashed behind his eyes. "Jack…" Ianto found his mouth stumbling for words, his fingers not working as well as they should. The numbness of the transport lingering longer than it should have. "He's still up there!"
"We left Tosh up there too," Gwen said tearfully. "God, we left them all on that ship."
His head spun. White flakes fell all around him. Ianto realized it was getting colder, yet not as cold as it should be, he thought idly. Parts of him felt too hot. He stared down at the device wrapped around his wrist.
"Do you know how to make that thing work?" Owen demanded. Owen shoved his hands under his armpits and stared across the distant expanse stamping his feet against the ground. His breath came out frosted on the chill air.
"No," Ianto whispered. He could feel himself swaying on his feet, his chest tight with the thought of Jack up there with Saxon. "I…he never told me."
"This doesn't look like Cardiff," Gwen fretted. Snow picked up by the wind blew past them. Gwen's hair was freckled with white. "Did we travel back in time? Or are we on another planet?"
"I don't think so." His voice came out thin. It was becoming hard to catch his breath. Ianto made an effort to steady his voice.
"Oh my God."
Gwen's voice dropped to a stunned whisper as she stared upward. Ianto tilted his face up and something colder than the snow ran down his neck sending a ripple through his body.
The sky was scarred with a pulsating tear. Black orbs rained out, cascading and filling the heavens with swirling, glowing globes like ink spilt across the sky.
"My pocket." Ianto dug at where Jack had slipped the key and crystal. His fingers kept missing the opening of his pocket for some reason. Uncoordinated and going numb.
The moment Ianto pulled out the two makeshift pendants, Martha snatched them from his tangled grasp.
"Put these on," Martha ordered. She practically threw them towards Gwen and Owen. "These should keep those things from seeing us."
Ianto felt for his own around his neck inside his shirt, reassured to feel the chill of the tiny metal key against his skin. He didn't relax until he saw his friends put theirs on as well.
Gwen gaped at the mountains, the snow, and the Toclafane slowly filling every part of the sky like a dark stain. They all watched anxiously as it swarmed out like an umbrella cloud but did not immediately descend.
Gwen gasped. "Oh God, Rhys! My parents!" She fumbled her mobile open. "It's not working! Does anyone have a signal? Come on, pick up!"
"Can we use that thing to get back up there?" Owen demanded. He gripped Ianto by the arm, wrenching him around. "Oi!"
Ianto blinked, dizzy with the questions and possibly the thin air from the altitude. He shook his head. "I don't know how it works. And I…" Ianto took in the frightening range of misty blue mountains. "And I think…those are the Himalaya Mountains." Why had Jack sent them here?
"What?" Owen exclaimed. "Shit good that'll do us. Did Jack want us to find a lot of yetis to help?"
"I don't know!" Ianto snapped back, the black mass gathering high overhead. It was too cold for this and getting colder by the second. His hands were shaking with it. "Jack sent us here, maybe to get us away from those things!"
"Oh right, we're safe from those things but we'll fucking freeze to death!"
"We have to find some place and fast!" Martha cut in, her voice harsher than Ianto had ever heard it before. She pointed to the sky. "Look!"
The dark stroke of swarming and writhing Toclafane had split up, like river outlets; thin lines of death forking off into different directions. One line curled in the sky bending towards them.
Owen swore. "I thought you said these things would hide us."
"If we remained quiet, Owen," Ianto shot back. He scanned their surroundings, his eyes caught by the wall of rock that stood behind them and the opening hidden under its shadow. "There! That cave over there!"
"Probably be eaten by a bear," Owen grumbled but he followed as they all ran for it.
"This way," Gwen urged, running towards the gloomy back of its interior. "I think this cave goes pretty dee-" Gwen suddenly screeched, arms flailing as if she was losing her balance.
Was there a drop? Ianto lunged for the closest arm he could reach, grabbed it, only to find he was being pulled instead.
"Ianto!" Martha shouted. She tried to grab him, but was too late. Ianto felt his foot slip, a dull throb became a sharp tearing pain in his shoulder as Gwen's weight pulled him forward and they fell-
Right through a wall.
The crash was jarring, but not as jarring as the realization that they hadn't fallen down a drop, but rather had fallen through a wall that wasn't really there. The warm air that greeted them struck them like a physical force.
"Shit." Owen must have plowed right through because he kept running until he skidded to a halt a meter away after bursting through with Martha.
"W-was that a hologram?" Martha gasped. She clutched the front of her jacket as she gulped for air.
Ianto got up shakily with Martha's help. He gaped around at the surprisingly warm cavern they found themselves in. It was small and cramped, but clearly man-made as the space lit up upon their entry.
"Hello."
Ianto breathed "Jack." When he spun around, however, his smile faded.
A blue tinged Jack flickered in front of them, on the false wall they went through.
Jack stood slightly above ground, wearing his greatcoat, his light blue shirt, grinning broadly at a spot beyond them. His eyes looked over their heads, possibly at a camera.
"If you're seeing this, that means the DNA reader has scanned you all and found I wasn't with you. Otherwise," Jack shrugged and winked, "I would tell you all this in person and trust me when I tell you, you're missing out." Jack posed and gave a flip salute above his brow.
Ianto smiled tightly. His hand rose to touch Jack, but when it went through Jack's chest, Gwen made a choking sound.
"What you're standing in is what remains of Torchwood Four."
Eyes widening, Ianto stared at Jack. He could hear the others spinning around for a second look. Martha held Ianto's right arm with both hands now. Her grip hurt.
"Torchwood Four went MIA during Alex Hopkins' command. It was believed to have been swallowed up in a rift quake and…" Even in the blue projection light, Ianto could see regret dull Jack's eyes.
"It rematerialized inside this mountain around the time when I joined your team. The six members of Torchwood Four…" Jack sighed and the lack of sound or the sensation of breath made Ianto's chest ache in sharp pains.
"I regret to say they didn't make it."
Gwen abruptly screamed and everyone turned around to see her pressing her face into Owen's shoulder. Owen gaped wide-eyed, white-lipped at the wall of icy granite, part of it scraped clean of frost by Gwen's hand. Silhouettes of trapped faces stared back at them like from a warped funhouse mirror. Outstretched seeking fingers pushed through rock but never broke the surface.
"Oh my God," Martha's voice trembled.
Ianto gulped, his head cottony and slow, as he turned back towards Jack, who never paused.
"…letter, Hopkins said he saw Torchwood in the Himalayas. Rather than dismantle Torchwood Four, I arranged to have this base supplied, wired it with a short term power source and set it in hibernation mode, to reactivate when it detected one of your DNA imprints."
Jack's mouth crinkled and he looked sad.
"Jack," Ianto pleaded even as the fatigue pulled at him.
"I don't know why you're here and why I'm not, but I'm sorry. I pray this base will see you through whatever has happened to Earth. Good luck…you may be our only hope."
And just as abrupt as his arrival, Jack's image flickered silently out of focus.
Ianto took a few haltering steps forward until he stood at the spot where Jack's image had been.
"At least he didn't ask for Obi-Wan Kenobi," Ianto muttered, but he couldn't find the humor in it to smile. His eyes filled as he opened his hands unconsciously trying to feel any essence of Jack left behind in the air. There was nothing.
"Did you know about this?" Owen rasped, his voice wavering like he'd forgotten how to speak. Gwen was now by the wall, her fingers lingering on the faces, her face contorted with grief.
"Christ, Jack should have told us. We might have been able to do something for them-"
"Take a look around you, Owen," Martha pointed out, her voice just as unsteady. "Everything looks like it grew out of rock. The computers, the chairs…They…" Martha swallowed, "they must have materialized inside the mountain."
"They never had a chance," Ianto whispered. His heart pounded. "They never saw it coming…Jack had this place repaired so if we got separated, Torchwood would still be available to us." Ianto pressed a hand to his chest. There was a roaring in his ears he couldn't ignore any longer. Jack, Tosh, Martha's family, the Doctor…they were up there with a mad man. "Jack got us out so we could have a chance while he…he…" Ianto gritted his teeth. It hurt so much. A sharp pain abruptly cut through his upper right shoulder, so sudden, so acute, Ianto groaned.
"Ianto?" Owen was suddenly by his left ear.
Ianto turned his increasingly heavy head towards him.
Owen narrowed his eyes on him. His gaze lowered. Owen abruptly pushed open Ianto's jacket and Ianto shivered. It was cold and yet he could feel the damp sweat trickling down his arm.
Owen swore. "Sit down." His arm went around Ianto's shoulders.
"Why?" Ianto wheezed stupidly. The mountain air was making him so tired. Martha was suddenly running past them, deeper into the morbid space, Gwen behind her as they opened doors and boxes in a frenzy.
"What do you mean why, you prat?" Owen looked scared for some reason. Or was he angry? It was hard to tell with Owen sometimes. "You should have said something!"
"About what?" Ianto blinked when he realized he was slurring. Ianto pulled his hand away and stared blankly at the slick red palm.
"Oh," Ianto mumbled.
His knees folded.
"Don't you dare," Owen hissed as he dropped, catching Ianto to him. "Don't you dare do this right now."
Ianto coughed and thought he tasted something coppery in his mouth. He groaned in pain when Owen's hands pressed down on a spot around his right shoulder.
"I always said you were one lucky sod. No way that teleport didn't catch you in time. You hear me, Ianto Jones? No dying today. I ain't having none of that"
Ianto gasped when Owen tore open his undershirt and piled folds of gauze over his shoulder.
"Shut up," Owen said, but his hands bellied the harshness in his voice. He cupped a hand under Ianto's chin and tilted his head up. Owen was talking to someone past his head.
"It's all right." Ianto wheezed, but the only reply he received was a light kiss to his brow as Gwen's hair brushed his forehead.
"Quiet, Jonesy," Owen grumbled. "Always have to have the last word."
"J-ones," Ianto ground out as Owen reached a hand under his shoulder and felt for the laser's exit wound. Ianto's legs kicked out before he could stop himself. It burned! Yes, the laser on the device! It had knocked him back, back into the beam of the transport. He-God, and…the blue eyes had widened as the blur took him…Jack saw him. Jack!
"We…we have to get Jack out of there," Ianto wheezed. "W-we…we have to…no time!" Ianto clawed Owen's arm.
"Aye, save your breath," Owen murmured. He pried Ianto's hand off his sleeve carefully and set it on his belly.
Martha was tugging off his jacket, Gwen was holding his hand, and heedless of the bloody handprint left on her shirt, and Owen, well, Ianto was afraid to watch what he was doing.
"You'll be fine, sweetheart," Gwen soothed. Her eyes were red and she looked a mess but she patted his hand like it was a soft puppy. "Owen's an ass but he's a good doctor."
"I'll agree…with the first…part," Ianto coughed and it hitched and wouldn't stop. Martha tucked his rolled up jacket under his head.
"Oi, that's enough cheek from you." Owen patted his shoulder when he bent back over him. His eyes didn't match the smile on his face. "Don't go dyin' on us now, Jonesy."
Ianto found he didn't have the strength to correct him again. He watched as Owen rummaged through a medical kit that looked far too old and outdated to be of any use.
Jack should have let him handle the requisitioning of the supplies, Ianto thought fuzzily. Jack should have told him. Jack should have stayed with them.
Ianto stared up at Martha as he tried not to think about how sharp the light had been that had stabbed through him or how much sharper the scalpel looked in Owen's grasp.
Panic seized in his chest. Ianto tilted his head back.
"Martha," Ianto gasped.
Martha smiled tightly down at him and nodded. She leaned down and whispered tightly against his ear. "We're coming back for them. I swear it."
Something released in his chest. Ianto nodded and hoped the gratitude was clear in his eyes. She above all the others understood.
Gwen was saying something, something that sounded like a prayer. Ianto thought he could hear the chirps and buzzing of Toclafane heading towards their shelter.
Everyone's voices were sounding farther and farther away. Someone was shouting his name. Owen sounded angrier and angrier and Ianto didn't know why. He was too tired to care. His shoulder screamed in agony after being numb for so long and he had a final thought as he felt himself being smothered by darkness.
I never should have let go of his hand.
Act II
Additional Notes: Many thanks to soullessminion for betaing this chapter. And trtmx for her magic trick that saved my sanity! LOL.