Slipping Through -- SkyPoint
Book cover by et_muse
Title: Slipping Through
Chapter Thirteen: SkyPoint
Count the Ways prompt: Phantasmawhogets
Date Written: 8/06/08
Rating: PG-13/T
Word Count: 4,081 (OMG)
Fandom: Torchwood/FAKE
Characters/Pairings: Ryo/Dee, Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys, Tosh, Owen (could be Tosh/Owen if you squint)
Spoilers: Up to Torchwood 02
Warnings: Probably not all that WS, gruesome images
Author's Notes: So this one's based on the novel SkyPoint, which isn't out yet. I've been into the Torchwood books lately, so yeah, this one was totally a my bad. And then the muses went all runaway on me. *sweatdrop*
Slipping Through master list found here.
"You're early!" Ryo said with a laugh, pulling Ianto into a surprising and friendly hug. "But frankly, we expected that." He pulled away, stepping aside to let them into the room. "Come on in, out of the coat. You too, Captain."
Jack chuckled and shucked his greatcoat obediently, handing it over to the half-Japanese detective. Ryo hung the two coats up on the coat rack next to the door. "You sure my coat's safe with you two?" Jack teased.
Ryo flushed and looked over at Ianto. "We're never going to live that one down, are we?"
Ianto pursed his lips and shook his head while Jack laughed behind him.
"C'mon, c'mon, sit," Ryo urged, leading them into the living room. "Dee's in the kitchen, probably trying to blow the flat up."
"Hey!" came a New York voice from the vicinity of the kitchen, and they all laughed a little.
Ianto and Jack sat on the couch, looking about. The flat was very posh, with recessed lighting in the ceiling and along the walls. Modern art swirled along the wall, the sheet rock used like huge canvases as the colors blurred together. The carpet under their feet was soft and white and shaggy, with black retro 60s style furniture set in strategic points here and there among the room. A floating wall was in the middle of the room, a huge flat-screen hung on the walls. "It's... very nice," Ianto said.
"It's very busy," Ryo replied. "I'm not quite sure if I like it or not, but it seems to fit." He crossed his arms, scratching idly at his chin. "My parents never really liked avant-garde, they preferred classic art. Mom used to say that if she didn't know what she was looking at, she didn't want to try and sell it."
"Oh, that's right, your parents were art dealers," Jack said, the little piece of biographical information surfacing in his brain.
Ryo chuckled and nodded. "Saw most of the world with them when I was on my school vacations. Mostly Scotland and Japan."
Ianto smiled and Jack's gaze was caught on a remote lying innocently on the glass coffee table in front of them. "So. Is it true about SkyPoint? That there's tech in everything?"
"Yes," Ryo replied, shaking a finger at him. "Behave yourself, Captain, or I'll have to take your wrist strap away." Jack looked like a child who'd been told he couldn't have a cookie, and Ryo laughed. "The TV doubles as a computer monitor, it's also touch sensitive. There's a music system on the other side of the floating wall, and hidden speakers wired throughout the flat. All the appliances in the kitchen are state of the art. The whole building's wireless. And I think there's more technology in the bathroom than we have in our whole apartment back home." He held his hands out, about four or five feet apart. "The shower's huge! And touch controlled."
"Also, apparently, we can have the landlords set it up so it's voice activated," Dee said, coming out of the kitchen holding a tray of glasses, each filled with a fizzing blue liquid. "I feel sort of like a Jetson, minus the robot maid. Although we do have one of those Roomba vacuum thingies."
Dee and Ryo had been set up in the new complex known as SkyPoint, even though the rent was far outside their budget. Five people had seen ghosts wandering about the streets of Cardiff, and all five of them rented flats at the apartment complex. Now the Laytner-MacLeans were living the good life, all on the Torchwood bill. Tonight's little cocktail party (a flat warming, although it was more a we have our own place to wreck up party and Torchwood after hours get-together, according to Dee) was on their tab, however.
"Toshiko is going to foam at the mouth," Jack said, reaching over to take one glass and look at it.
"Oh, she's already cussed us both," Dee assured him, sitting in one of the chairs. "Both languages. It's funny, 'cause to look at her you wouldn't think she even knows all those words." He smiled up at Ryo when his husband sat on the arm of the chair.
"Neesan* is full of surprises," Ryo replied with a chuckle, running his fingers through Dee's hair.
The smile that Dee flashed up to Ryo on made Ianto shift uncomfortably in his seat, the offsetting feeling back again in full force. He reached for a drink and took a tentative sip, eyes widening. "What is this?"
"They're called Sonic Screwdrivers," Dee said, winking at Jack.
"His idea," Ryo defended, pointing an accusing finger at his husband.
"I think that one's blue raspberry martini mix, tonic water and vodka, although we also have Sprite and vodka and blue food dye," Dee continued, ignoring Ryo.
"Sonic Screwdrivers, hmn?" Jack teased, taking a sniff. The sugary-sweet scent of soda pop filled his nose.
"Opens any pants fly," Dee deadpanned.
"Technically you're supposed to make 'em with blue Gatorade -- a blue colored sports drink -- but they were not good at all," Ryo explained, his turn to ignore his husband. "So we experimented a little. These were the two best we could come up with."
Jack chuckled, sipping his drink. The taste of vodka was covered very nicely by the Sprite. He flicked his eyes over to Ianto, who was taking another drink and nodding in a little bit of approval.
There was another knock at the door and Ryo kissed Dee's forehead before levering himself up to answer the door. The dark-haired detective watched his husband leave the room with a look of complete and utter adoration, as if he was the only person in the room.
Ianto felt a tug from somewhere below his ribcage and realized with a little jolt that... that's what he wanted. For Jack to look at him like he was the only person that existed.
Jack looked over at him, frowning a little. "You okay, Ianto?"
The Welshman nodded, giving a reassuring smile. "Yeah."
Jack's face clearly said he didn't believe him, but they were interrupted by Rhys' exclamation of "Bloody hell!" and Gwen's gasp of approval.
Ryo came back in, holding up a Welsh national flag. "Lookit what the Williamses brought us," he said with a grin.
"Only appropriate," Rhys defended and Gwen laughed and put a hand on his arm.
Toshiko was immensely impressed by everything, running slim fingers all over the technology and speaking to Ryo and Dee in a mix of rapid-fire Japanese and English. Dee, mostly, shadowed her during the tour of the apartment, opening every piece of technology to show it off proudly.
Owen was impressed, but he tried hard not to show it.
They drank and played poker until the wee hours of the morning, using Hub chores as bets. The others begged off eventually, Dee disappeared to have a smoke and Ryo went into the kitchen to clean up.
Ianto hooked up a few Rift activity scanners in the rooms before wandering back into the kitchen. The Welsh flag Rhys and Gwen had brought them was hung up over the doorway, and Ianto couldn't help but smile at it. "Have you seen Jack?"
"He's probably out with Dee," Ryo replied easily, washing the glasses and plates they'd used earlier that night. "Dee smokes on rooftops and well, you know Jack," he said with a laugh.
Ianto fell in next to him and Ryo handed him a wet glass. The two of them worked quietly together, Ryo washing and Ianto drying. When Ianto had been handed the last piece of dishware, Ryo turned and smiled at him. "Thanks for the Rift alarms."
"'Course," the young Welshman replied, wiping the last drops of water off the glass and handing it over to Ryo to put away.
Ryo smelled the bittersweet cigarette smoke before he saw Dee, two arms wrapping around his waist from behind and puling him close. He grinned and turned his head to kiss Dee gently, murmuring to him in Japanese.
It was only when Jack called his name that Ianto managed to tear his gaze away from the married couple. "You ready to go?"
"Yeah." He brushed past Dee and Ryo, smiling at their well-wishes and good nights.
"You okay?" Jack asked again when Ianto snagged his coat.
"I'm fine, Jack," he said, stepping back. Jack moved in front of him, letting the Welshman slide the greatcoat over his shoulders. Once the coat was on, the Captain spun around and kissed him thoroughly, pulling Ianto's body against his.
"Your place or mine?" he asked in a breathless voice once they broke apart for air.
"Mine's closer."
-----
"Got a minute, Jack?"
Jack looked up and set his pen aside. "Please, Dee, save me from bureaucracy."
The dark-haired detective grinned and moved to sit in the chair across from Jack.
"Where's the husband?"
"Field work." He gave a sigh and his expression sobered. "Another person disappeared last night."
Jack swore and Dee handed him over the details. Jason Pearson, 52. Wife Carmen's statement saying he got up in the middle of the night for a glass of water and never came back to bed. "Seen any more ghosts?"
Dee shook his head. "No, and we moved in two weeks ago. But others around have. Some of the other tenants are already moving out and looking for other places to live. Hasn't even been opened for two months."
"Rift monitors picking up anything?"
"Not really," Dee admitted. "A little something here or there. It's something so minor that the machines can't even pick it up. That combined with witnesses that don't exactly want to talk about seeing things that aren't there make for a very hard investigation."
"I can imagine," Jack agreed.
Dee's mobile went off and he frowned, leaning back in his chair and pulling out his PDA. "Ryo get anything?"
"Dunno yet," he said, thumbing to his messages. There was a new one from Ryo and he selected it, impatiently waving his hand as the picture loaded.
Jack knew something was wrong when Dee went stark white, green eyes widening in shock. "What?"
Dee handed him the PDA, hand shaking a little. Jack took it and looked down at the screen.
It was a picture of their apartment, Jack recognized the swirling paint job of the wall. In front of the wall painting, however, was a shadowy image of a humanoid-type creature. Underneath the picture was the caption "I believe you now".
Dee was already out the door, PDA forgotten. Jack grabbed his coat, running after him. "Gwen, Tosh, Owen, Ian-TO! SUV, now!"
-----
Tosh was scanning every inch of the flat with her PDA, frowning a little. "So you said it came out of the wall?" she called out over her shoulder.
Ryo was sitting on the couch, cradling a mug of tea. He nodded at first, but then realized that she wouldn't be able to see him. "Hai. Yes. It came right out of the wall." He looked over at Dee. "God help me, it looked like Mr. Pearson."
Dee ran a hand through Ryo's hair, pulling him close to press his lips against his husband's forehead.
"Say it," Ryo prompted, leaning against his shoulder.
"Hate to say it, but I did tell you so," Dee obliged, pressing another kiss to Ryo's temple when the half-Japanese man started laughing.
"What have you got, Tosh?" Jack asked, turning from the Laytner-MacLeans curled up together on the couch to his pretty technician.
"It's odd," she finally concluded. "I have readings sort of like the ones we got off of Ryo and Dee, but it's different." She looked up at the Captain. "It's hard to explain. Crossing dimensions left some residual energy on them. The energy reads are showing something similar, but not nearly as strong as theirs." She shrugged. "It's sort of like the ghosts came from a sub-dimension of our own, if that makes any sense."
Jack scratched his chin, thinking. "And what about the energy readings Ryo got from the Pearson flat?"
"Similar as well. It's almost like... he was snatched into the sub-dimension."
Ianto stiffened, eyes going wide. "Oh, fuck," he swore, just loud enough for everyone to turn and stare at him.
"Did the Tea Boy just say fuck?" Owen asked, pulling one earpiece of the stethoscope out of his ear. He'd been giving Ryo a once-over to make sure he was okay.
Gwen nudged his shoulder and shushed him. "What, Ianto?"
"Canary Wharf." He looked at the team, finally settling his gaze on Jack. "The Naofax. They're doing the same thing the Cybermen did at Canary Wharf."
"And the Gelth, back in the 1800s," Ryo agreed, the pieces finally falling into place. "Fuck," he echoed breathlessly, looking up at the Welshman, "you're right. Exploiting weaknesses in space and time that arise around the Rift and using the humans they find on this side for their own purposes."
Jack rubbed at his face, eyes wide in shock. Hostile alien takeover. Must be Wednesday. "Okay. Ianto, we need all the information available in the archives on the Naofax. Gwen, I need you to call Andy, try to get them to shut the building down. Owen, you can finish up your exam back at the Hub. Ryo, Dee, this flat is not safe, you are not staying here. Toshiko--"
He turned to give the technician her marching orders to find her being held hostage by a Naofax. The alien was electric green with translucent skin, so thin that he could see the veins pulsing underneath. Its skin had a slightly sticky quality, like half-eaten hard candy. One tentacle-like arm was tight around her waist while the other had sharp claw-like fingernails pressed against her throat.
Five guns were drawn simultaneously, and the click of the safeties being switched off echoed throughout the suddenly completely silent flat. Ryo went for his as well but swore fit to make a sailor blush when he realized he'd locked it up in their bedroom.
"Okay, look," Gwen started, stepping forward and lowering her gun. "Let's not do anything rash." She gave the alien a friendly smile. "Why don't you just let her go?"
The alien regarded Gwen, tilting its head one way, then the other, obviously contemplating what she was saying.
"We can help you," she said, voice soothing.
The Naofax smiled cruelly, revealing sharp shark-like teeth. "You already are, Human," it informed her in a breathy, almost ethereal, terrifyingly angelic-sounding voice.
Both the Naofax and Tosh were surrounded by a red-orange-yellow light. Tosh started struggling against the alien, but it was far too late. In an instant, the place where Tosh had been standing was bare.
"Fuck," they all swore simultaneously.
-----
They were operating on humans. Doing in-depth mind probes to gather every little scrap of information they could about Earth. Driving the poor people crazy as their minds collapsed in upon themselves. Then using their poor, broken, mad bodies as experiments for Rift projections.
Those that came back -- and there were many that didn't -- were dead, their faces contorted in indescribable pain.
This was it. She was going to die in another dimension. She'd faced certain death before, but this had such a finality to it that this time she believed there was no escape.
Death by Torchwood had many faces.
-----
"Another flare upstairs!"
Team Torchwood -- plus two freelancers and minus their technician -- ran out of the flat towards the stairs, Jack leading the way, poking at his wrist strap.
"So what are we going to do, Jack?" Gwen asked.
"Find the Rift portal," Jack replied over his shoulder. "Go through, rescue Tosh, save Cardiff."
"Normal day at the office then," Ianto deadpanned.
"Who's going to go through?" Ryo asked, bringing up the rear since he'd been forced to stop and slip on his shoes when they'd bolted out the door.
"I will," Jack said with finality.
"Jack, no -- "
"How will you get back?"
"You could die. Again."
"Better me than any of you!" he argued, turning to give them a the subject is not up for negotiation glare. "I'll get Tosh and we'll come back."
"She could be injured," Owen argued. "I should go."
"No." Jack's voice was hard and he pointed a finger at Owen. "If you get injured, you can't repair yourself."
"I know, fucking glass man," the doctor growled, shoving his broken hand into his jacket pocket. "Can't do a bloody thing."
Jack opened his mouth to argue but his wrist strap beeped, interrupting their fight. He spun around and grinned when he saw the fracture, fiery-colored light seeping through in beautiful tendrils. "Okay. Just wait for me."
There was a hand on his shoulder and he looked over at Owen. "Sorry 'bout this, mate," the doctor said, his other hand cocked back, fingers curled in.
Before any of them could react, Owen had slammed his fist into the Captain's nose, all of them wincing at the crunching sound of breaking nasal bones. The force of the blow made Jack stumble back into Ianto and Gwen, a hand over his bleeding nose.
"What the hell?" Gwen yelled, falling back against the wall as half of Jack Harkness ran into her.
"Don't, Owen!" Ianto called out roughly, eyes on the undead doctor as he ran down the hall and jumped into the fracture. The hall was filled with blinding white light and by the time the remainder of Torchwood could see again, the hall was empty.
"You didn't have to break my nose!" Jack shouted at thin air.
-----
He was in some sort of gruesome hospital morgue, or maybe in some sort of house of horrors. He was glad he couldn't smell anything because he was sure the stench of rotting flesh would be everywhere. Blood covered the walls and there were piles of meat lining the walls, half-chewed on. Memories of cannibals in the Beacons flooded through Owen's mind and he found himself fighting down the unexpected urge to vomit, even though there was nothing in his stomach.
It was the little things that reassured him that he was still alive.
There was a metal pole leaning against one of the walls and he picked it up, adjusting his grip as he tried to gauge the weight of it. There were some wicked-looking spikes on the opposite end, obviously making it some sort of coercion device.
He was just wondering where to go next when he heard screaming from down the right corridor. Female screaming.
Toshiko.
He grasped the pole tighter as he ran towards the sound, kicking the door the screams were coming from open.
Three Naofax were standing around a set-up similar to the mind probe they had at the Hub, a metal chair bolted to the ground. Toshiko was struggling against her bindings, eyes rolling back as her body convulsed in pain. They rounded when Owen burst into the room.
The first one fell before it could demand what Owen was doing, the human slamming the weapon into its head like a club. The second one was struck down when it froze, gaping at Owen in obvious shock.
The third aimed a weapon at him but Owen didn't even flinch. "Can't kill a dead man."
"What are you?" the alien demanded.
"Thoroughly pissed off," the doctor replied, swinging his weapon again.
-----
"Okay Jack, take a deep breath," Dee warned, very carefully putting his fingers on Jack's nose.
The Captain tried hard not to flinch. He felt Ianto's and Gwen's calming hands on his back and arms, another pair of hands -- Ryo's, he knew -- holding his head still.
"On three," the dark-haired detective said, eyes flicking up to his husband. "One, two -- "
The bones crunched as his nose was rudely realigned. He tried to squirm at the sudden jolt of pain, but the others held him still. Blood began to flow out of his nose again and Ianto was there with a handkerchief, sopping up the red liquid
Gwen handed Dee a plaster and he put it firmly over the bridge of the Captain's nose. "I imagine it'll be healing up shortly, but we shouldn't take chances on it healing wonky," Ryo informed him, holding his head still until Jack's twitching stopped.
"You're good at this," Jack said, his voice sounding weird and nasal in his own ears.
"Came across my fair share of them as a kid," Dee replied with a shrug. "Had to fix up plenty of friends."
"Why'd he do that?" Gwen asked with a sigh.
"He needs to feel accepted," Jack replied, tipping his head back a little to try and slow the blood flow, "that he's still a part of the team."
"He is! He's our medic, we need him."
"He needs to figure that out for himself, Gwen," Ryo said.
"What do we do now?" Ianto asked.
Jack sighed. "Now we wait."
-----
"Tosh? Tosh, wake up," Owen urged, undoing the straps that bound the Japanese woman to the chair. "Tosh?"
She'd passed out when he shut down the mind probe. He'd given her a quick once-over before he started unstrapping her -- strong pulse, a few bruises but otherwise okay.
If only she would open her eyes and let him know that she hadn't sustained brain damage.
He patted her cheek a little, trying to bring her around. "Tosh. Toshiko, I really need you to wake up now."
She groaned when she came to, batting his hand away. "Owen?"
He grinned at her. "You feel okay?"
"Headache," Tosh managed, feeling like she was talking around a mouthful of cotton balls.
Owen nodded, reaching up to run his fingers through her hair, feeling at the points where the headset had been fastened to her scalp. "You're lucky that's all you've got," he told her, keeping his voice quiet.
"Where are the others?"
"Left 'em behind." He winked at her. "We don't need those losers."
She laughed a little, wincing at the sudden pain that slashed through her head.
"Tosh," he said, pulling her carefully to her feet. "They've got a Rift Manipulator. It's how they're getting through, they're opening the Rift."
"We have to shut it down."
Owen nodded in agreement, helping her get a few unsteady steps away from the mind probe. "Can you do it? Destroy it and get us back home?"
"'Course," Tosh scoffed, a hand on her head. "Haven't met a piece of tech yet that I couldn't figure out."
-----
"Your -- Neesan? -- is certainly full of surprises," Jack said to Ryo when he entered his office. "Am I saying that right?"
Ryo nodded, offering him a glass of brandy. "I hope you don't mind," he said, showing his own glass of the dark brown liquid.
Jack took the glass, downing half of it in one gulp. "Helluva day."
"Helluva day," Ryo echoed in agreement, nodding a little. "She's okay?"
"Owen's giving her a proper work up, but she seems okay." He set a file on his desk. "Dee's taking her statement, but she basically set the Naofax Rift Manipulator to self-destruct after one last trip through."
"They'll be able to rebuild," Ryo pointed out. "Might take a while, but they'll be ready next time."
"So will we," Jack replied. "We're going to set up some modified Rift detectors around SkyPoint so if -- and when -- this happens again, we'll be ready."
Ryo nodded a little. "Dee and I can do that."
"You two going to stay there?" the Captain asked, cocking his head to the side.
"Dunno." The half-Japanese detective sipped his glass, a thoughtful look on his face. "We're paid up through another month, so I guess we'll figure things out as we go along." He looked up at Jack. "What do you think?"
"You're both professionals and I know you can handle yourselves," the Captain answered after a moment. "That being said, I don't like the idea of two of my team living there."
"It is expensive," Ryo said. "Don't think we'd be able to afford it for too long."
"Pretty pretentious, too," Jack agreed.
Ryo laughed. "I guess we're back to flat hunting, then."
"Look on the bright side," Jack reassured him. "At least we didn't blow up this complex."
They were still laughing when Dee and Ianto came up to their office fifteen minutes later.
-----
*Neesan = Japanese for older sister.