The Second End - Dare to Hope 8/?
Chapter One: Eternal Reccurrence
Chapter Two: Wrath Of The Betrayed
Chapter Three: A Vengeful World
Chapter Four: The Sweetest Torture
Chapter Five: If He Loves Me Not
Chapter Six: How The Hopeful Have Fallen
Chapter Seven: Shattered Glass
2nd_toshiko: Jackxianto, Torchwoodslash, Torch_wood.
Just_being_me08: Jantolution, Torchwoodcoffee, Torchwood_fic.
Missing. The warm, almost intoxicating feeling I had gone to bed with that night had died. It was gone, leaving the world around me cold and empty. I was alone again.
Opening his eyes, Ianto knew something was wrong. The Hub was deadly quiet around him, Jack’s body so close that he could hear that painfully familiar slow breathing. He reached out, feeling a cold limb beneath his touch. The Captain’s body was as if made of ice, barely living.
Sitting up, Ianto felt a scream gather in his throat, rising and burning its way upwards from his heart. He could feel the sting of tears piercing at his eyes, his stomach tightening and churning. He opened his mouth, trying to let out the noise, let it strangle him if needs be. Instead, there was only a soft sob.
Clutching the ice cold body to his chest, Ianto grasped at Jack’s bare back, feeling his skin, soft yet so dead underneath his fingers. He could hear each rasp of breathing in his ears; feel the slow heartbeat drum beneath the older man’s rib cage against him. Jack’s body may still be with him, but his lover was lost again….
Her mother had always taught her to be calm, to let life wash over her and ride out all the troubles. Anger isn’t attractive on a woman she would always say to her. But right now, Toshiko Sato was ready to forget it all. She was livid.
The drive to the Hub hadn’t helped either, in fact in some ways it had riled her more, given her chance to think, to build up all the frustration that had been slowing mounting in her system. She wanted to see Jack be healthy again; she wished more than anything that she could put Ianto out of the misery that he had been thrown into. But Owen was letting their relationship suffer too; it had been lying dwindling at the back of their minds for weeks. And now, now he wasn’t even coming home anymore.
There was no sign of Gwen as the cog door rolled backwards, the hub opening out in front of her. She stepped forward, shrugging off her jacket.
“Anyone?!” Her empty words leapt out into the cool air around her. She wrinkled her forehead, eyes scanning the Hub. “Owen?!” Her voice was louder now, more frantic as she cautiously stepped towards the autopsy bay. Nothing. Toshiko shook her head, looking down the steps. Her mouth opened, air escaping it as she felt her whole body go rigid. She’d found Owen.
Almost throwing herself down the steps, Tosh knelt beside the body, eyes ignoring the acute and unnatural angles that his limbs had arranged themselves in as he lay slumped against the white wall. His limp, pale body looked drawn, as if it had been thrown, discarded with, as Tosh’s petite hands searched his wrists for a pulse. Her vision was blurry, eyes unfocused as she found nothing, her throat so clogged that she could hardly breathe.
“Owen?” Her words barely made a sound, caught up within tears and pain as she shook his shoulders desperately. “Owen?!” They were more of a shriek now, voice loud and shrill. She fumbled at her ear to turn on her comm, clicking it on with shaking hands.
“Please!” She found herself yelling, hoping someone, anyone would hear. “Please…….help me!”
A loud scream made Ianto’s eyes snap open, his grasp on Jack’s limp shoulders tightening. He heard the voice again, desperate and terrified. Toshiko. Laying his Captain back down to rest, he threw on some trousers, before running to the source of the noise.
“My God……” Ianto’s voice was barely a mumble as he reached the autopsy bay. He felt his knees buckle beneath him, adrenaline coursing its way across his synapses as he stumbled forward to Tosh’s side. “What happened?”
“You think if I knew that I’d be like this?!” Her voice was sodden with tears. Fingers trembling, Ianto reached out, feeling at the Doctor’s neck, feeling nothing. He gulped, turning his attention back to Tosh.
“Look, we’ll move him when Gwen comes. Come on Tosh; let me get you a coffee.” He reached out, trying to gently steer her away form Owen’s lifeless body.
“I want to stay with him.”
“Tosh, please….”
“I want to stay with him.” Her eyes met his, the sorrow in them feeling so familiar to Ianto. “I need him to be with me.”
Ianto left Tosh by Owen’s body, not sure what else he could do. A mixture of shock, sadness and confusion was coursing through his veins as he paced around the Hub, not sure what to do for the best. He wanted to at least move Owen, make him look more comfortable, although Ianto knew that it was a ridiculous idea. But at the same time he wanted to beside Jack, he wanted to shake his body until his Jack came back to him, just like he had the night before.
He’d never needed his Captain so much.
Desperate hands met the keyboard, as Ianto logged into Toshiko’s computer, eyes scanning the screen as he found the CCTV log. Searching through the hours of footage quickly, an image of Owen, walking around the Hub appeared in front of him. Letting it play, Ianto watched silently, eyes glued to the screen.
He saw Owen walking out of Jack’s office, voice calling out, and eyes wide and frightened. There was silence, before a harrowing voice rang out from the speakers.
Human, thee be Mine…
It was a voice that Ianto recognised all too well. The Edospes.
His eyes were fixed to the screen as he saw Owen stop stock still, body tense, almost as if he was in a trance. His piercing scream rang out as a fierce black cloud seemed to force its way into his body through his mouth, causing it to writhe and convulse, as his scream grew so deafening that Ianto couldn’t help but flinch. But he had to keep watching. See as the doctor’s body shook, his eyes turning black, the same colour as the Edospes itself. Then, Owen went limp, the scream silenced, his head lolling to one side like a loosely strung puppet. His body was suddenly thrown sideways, limbs flapping and heavy as he was almost thrown across the screen and out of the camera’s line of sight. There was only silence, until a deep voice echoed out into the Hub.
“Thank you, My Child.”
The Edospes had claimed another victim.
He didn’t know what was worse. Sitting in the boardroom opposite Toshiko, her delicate hands clasped around a coffee mug, or knowing that both Owen and Jack were lying beneath them, beyond help. Beyond hope. Either way, the team was lost without their Captain, lost without their medic. The Team’s organs were slowing being torn out from underneath them….
“What do we know?” Gwen’s voice was shaky, as she stared out to what was left of her team sitting in front of her. Her eyes reached out pleadingly, avoiding Tosh’s gaze and finding Ianto’s instead.
“The Edospes.” He managed to croak through barred teeth. “It got Owen.”
“But how?” Sephy had stepped in, her voice professional and distant, returning to the soldier she’d one had to be. “I thought that the Edospes was still locked up inside Jack?”
“Maybe it’s reproducing? Duplicating itself and-”
“No, Gwen.” Ianto felt his heart twinge as he gave a quick glance across the table to Toshiko. “Last night, the Edospes left Jack.”
“What?” Gwen was first to reach, her eyes wide. “How?”
“I don’t know. But last night, he came back…..Jack came back. He was real again……alive.”
“So the Edospes let him go?” It was Sephy’s turn to be confused. “Why would she…..it do that?”
“I don’t know.” Ianto shrugged, forcing tears back behind his eyelids. “I really don’t know.”
“You killed him.” A soft voice spoke out from behind a curtain of black hair. “You released it.”
“Tosh?” Gwen managed to stammer, eyes fixed on Tosh’s swollen face as she slowly pushed back her hair.
“Ianto killed Owen.” Her voice was still low, but its tone was so sinister that it shook Ianto’s soul. “If the Edospes had never left Jack then Owen would be here.”
“Tosh…..I swear to you.” Ianto stuttered, heart pounding with guilt. “I never knew, I never did anything…..I….”
“No, you didn’t. And now I’ve lost everything. Owen has lost everything. And he was trying to save Jack.”
“None of this is Jack’s fault!” Ianto felt his voice break, growing louder with each passing nanosecond.
“Then whose is it, Ianto?” Tosh’s eyes were like liquid fire now, her palms flat against the wood of the table. “If Jack hadn’t been so stupid, if he hadn’t have brought it here then Owen would still be alive!”
“He didn’t know!” Ianto was standing now, the tears breaking through his eyes and flowing down his face, flooding his features. “This isn’t his fault.”
“Then give me someone to blame.” Tosh paused, her own tear filled eyes looking away, voice trembling and rattling in her chest. “Because I need to blame someone Ianto. I’ve had my hope stolen, and it’s killing me.”
Never in all her life had Sephy Clifford felt so useless, so helpless. Never had she been so out of control. She was a soldier, she lived for control. But now everything was hurtling away from her at light speed.
Her training had told her not to become attached, not to develop any bonds with Torchwood or its team, to forever be distant. But despite it all, she loved them, every single one of them. She loved who they were, what they stood for, the selflessness that they showed to her every second of every working day. And suddenly Sephy felt as if she didn’t deserve that. She wanted to help them, but there was nothing she could do….
Standing outside the cell, Sephy pressed both hands against the glass, watching the motionless Captain lie stretched out before her. Her breath painting an iced picture onto the transparent sheet, Sephy found herself speaking to Jack, words almost like a prayer.
“Please, Jack……..they need you. God knows right now they need you more than ever. They never realised how hard the decisions you have to make were, and they aren’t ready to find out. Please……find some way to save them.”
Delicious…..
The word chimed through Sephy’s brain, disembodied, echoing through the chasms in her mind. “Who’s that?” She yelled, throwing words out into the open space in front of her.
My child. Thou is so beautiful. I can smell the essence of life within you. So new, so different. Thou is not the same.
“I don’t understand!”
Oh to feast upon thou, to live within thy flesh……. Would be so delicious, so precious. Time runs through you, My child.
“Please!” She was screaming now, the eerie voice causing panic in her brain. “Explain yourself!”
Thy wishes to My desires? For any lesser mortal I would refuse…….but for one so intriguing….
“What do you want?”
You, My child. The Queen of the Edospes desires the child whose blood runs with time…..
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