The Storms of Change: Chapter Eight
Summary: There comes a time in every Sentinel's life when their immortality is revealed. When 21st Century Earth is the epicenter of the change that will decide the survival of the human race. What kind of consequences affect those who are preparing for the change as this immortality is revealed amongst one of their own. Is Torchwood really ready?
Words: 1,228
Title: Spooks
The War to End All Wars as Ianto had known it, was terrible enough when reading about it but actually living it? Well, he understood why so many people ended up in the hospital for mental trauma. This was enough to send even the sanest man off the deep end. When the war started he hadn't been all that sane to begin with so he didn't care about what more could be done to him.
He stretched soundlessly as he came back to wakefulness, ignoring the slight protesting pain he received from various areas around his body. The body beside him shifted towards him, nuzzling his shoulder. He was oddly affectionate for someone who hated his sexual orientation but that was the reason why Ianto had chosen him. The man needed man-sex and Ianto needed information that only he could give.
His lover, though that was putting it in nice terms since they were far from lovers, was a young general in the German army. They met about two or three times a week, given their duties and after Ianto always had a nice packet of information to send to Britain. No one had a clue about him either, he'd spent years all over Europe perfecting the languages and accents, and his German was very authentic.
He stayed where he was, giving the general some comfort while he planned his next move. He had two jobs for the British in this war, one was to supply information and the other was to eliminate the Military Officers. Information moved regularly while the deaths he had to pull off at a more natural rate. They still died though his methods made it seem as though everyone of them had died natural deaths.
And he was so good at it, ending these people's lives, dealing out judgment and playing gods. He loved it, the hunting that led him to knowing these men's lives in and out only for him to rip them apart. It felt so good to screw someone's life over, make them feel pain and anguish, make them suffer. It was like a high for him because he suffered every day, every time his lover touched him; fucked him. Making others suffer just seemed to take his own away if only for a little while. It was why he was perfect for this job. He just didn't care.
He went back to work feeling perfectly refreshed. The exhaustion that had been creeping up on his body had been eased. His choice to go to the Pendragon Estate during his suspension had been a very good idea. Mordred and Xander had been through their own dark times, their own painful revelations of their secrets. They knew how he felt and they knew how to help him.
He returned to work as if nothing had happened, served coffee, archived the new artifacts and filed the paperwork. Though he acted as if nothing had happened everyone around him couldn't so easily forget. Gwen no longer gave him cheery smiles and her eyes were full of jealousy. Jack was civil but there wasn't any of his playful sex filled comments. Owen was just as caustic, made pointed remarks about his immortality but Ianto could see that he was relieved.
Tosh was the only one who hadn't changed and Ianto loved her for it. She hadn't even acted different when she first found out and he knew that the day Torchwood cost her, her lifer he would be losing his best friend. He hoped that day didn't arrive for many years.
Three days after his suspension ended they uncovered an alien sleeper cell. Ianto felt sorry for Beth, seemingly human only to learn she was, in fact, not. Then he felt sorry for himself because this was throwing his own inhuman revelation in his team's face again. He'd watched Jack run his tests, couldn't help but make his comments where he saw fit but Gwen's comment: he wanted to kill her for it. Unless she'd slept with him she wouldn't know anything about how he was in bed. Had she and Jack…?
He talked to Beth, when the others had left her alone for a moment. He wanted to help her, wanted to do what he could for her because he knew how she must feel. But she was far different from him, he could feel the EM pulse around her, could sense her inhuman nature just under the human shell. It felt wrong to him, so wrong and he didn't want to let her know so he left her in her cell, kept her distance.
When it was over he wished he'd been more like her. She refused to give into her dark side, her inhuman nature. Eighty years ago Ianto hadn't cared about falling into darkness. He had been more inhuman than Beth. He felt as the guilt wash over him. He should be alive, he should be in cold storage like Beth, dead because he deserved it for all that he had done, all the live that he had ruined. He hadn't just murdered people in the war, common British patrons had fallen to his hands prior to 1914 because one day he'd just snapped and went in the wrong direction. He should have gotten help but the early 1900's was the worst time for trying to find the kind of help he needed.
"You're hiding."
Ianto turned to Jack. He'd fixed himself up, there was no longer any evidence of him having taken a sword to the heart. Ianto didn't know what to think about that. He wanted to fuss, his attraction and caring made it very hard not to and yet he knew it wouldn't be welcome. They had a whole lot of stuff to work out before Jack would probably every welcome his touch.
"I'm doing my work Sir." Ianto replied. And he was. The archives always needed to be sorted and catalogued and updated. The best time to do it was after hours when the rift was quiet and no one needed his coffee skills.
"You're still hiding," Jack told him.
Ianto shrugged, "If you say so."
Jack sighed, "We need to talk Ianto."
"I wasn't aware we were doing something different."
That earned him a small smile. "True but I mean really talk: about you. You're different now I can easily see it though you try not to show whatever Bilis did you and the effects it had. I want to know."
Ianto sighed and put down the folder he'd been holding. Of course Jack would ask after an incident like this. Jack would need to know what Ianto knew, he shouldn't have waited a week and a half before asking.
"Bilis knew I was different, knew I was a wild card in his plans so he had to get rid of me. It was painful Jack, the rift energy killed me over and over before depositing me two hundred years into the past. We both know Earth's history, we've both lived through it. You know how damaging it can be Jack and it damaged me, crushed my soul into a monster far worse than any race that has tried to destroy this world."
"You're not a monster Ianto," Jack insisted. "Never."
Ianto looked at Jack sadly, "You'll change your mind. You'll see."
Chapter Nine
Sentinel Guide