Jack’s and Ianto’s Private Archives - Season 2 -20/28 part 3 - 08/08
Title: Jack’s and Ianto’s Private Archives - Season 2 - 20/28
Fandom: Torchwood
Part 3: A Matter of Trust 08/08
POV: from Jack’s point of view.
Characters/pairings: Jack/Ianto and Owen.
Rating: PG-15
Summary: Jack asked Owen to run a full check up on Ianto and invited Syphide, an old friend, to join them. (This part is related with the last three chapters of my Doctor Who fic: A Matter of Trust)
Disclaimer: The usual, I don’t own what you’ll be able to recognize, the rest is all mine.
Beta: czarina_kitty
“How does it work?”Owen asked.
“Our blood activates connections that should remain dormant, but it doesn’t change the body’s biochemistry. It’s just an enabler. The subject is still human with his physiological and psychological limitations.”
“Yes, I’m beginning to understand the problem, but what kind of side effects are we talking about exactly?” he asked, fully aware the others were reluctant to tell him which psychic gifts Ianto had inherited.
“Empathy, mostly,” Ianto finally said.
“Empathy?” Owen repeated incredulously.
“Yes! I feel... I feel what people around me feel, physically and eventually emotionally.”
“What do you mean by ‘eventually’?” Owen asked. He was beginning to get why they were reluctant.
“Some people are able to build walls to protect their mental thoughts and emotions, in that case, I only feel the physical sensations... I use the same techniques to protect myself from external aggressions.”
“External aggression?” Owen repeated.
“For Human empaths who aren’t dotted with natural defences, the proximity of others is painful at all times. At best, with the proper training, they can withstand at low-doses, the proximity of others,” Sylphide explained. “Initially, the compatibility of our species seemed to be a good thing. For the half-blood there were no side effects, in cases of transfusion to an adult. Some cases with development of levels 1 or 2 empathy were soon established in pure Humans. It could become level 3 in teenagers, but it was very rare...,”she continued to an attentive audience. “Unfortunately, children infected in uteri, or within the first few months of life, developed empathy between levels 4 and 5--extremely disabling empathy.”
“Oh, I suppose, our friend here, can consider himself lucky then,” Owen concluded.
Neither Jack nor Sylphide wanted to disabuse him of this notion. As for Ianto, even if he suspected his empathy was not light, he didn’t know what was worse. And even if he knew he would certainly have kept it to himself.
While speaking Sylphide was reviewing the scans results. For his part, Owen had launched the DNA comparison.
“Have you ever seen this?” Jack asked.
“Apart from in some of your S.F. movies? No,” she answered.
“In those kinds of movies, this kind of stuff always ends badly,” Owen noted.
“Does it have a meaning for you? Can you tell what it implies?” Ianto asked uncomfortable.
“Yes and no, some of the areas activated are well known: here and here and there, sit the different forms of memory. I remember you had an amazing memory...” she replied, pointing to the areas involved.
“Yes, I can confirm that. ‘Amazing’ being the right word. A memory with backup and the ability to reboot,” Owen commented. He still couldn’t quite believe that said memory had survived Jack’s massive retconning.
Syphide gave him an inquiring eyebrow, but didn’t ask.
“This is the place of empathy, and there, of telepathy...” Sylphide continued.
“I'm not a telepath,” Ianto protested.
“It looks like you are indeed,” she replied.
“I think I would have realized it, don’t you think?” Ianto remarked sarcastically.
“Not necessarily,” Jack started with a big smile. He added, “Your definition of telepathy is phantasmagorical. Reality is different, and your empathy may well hide it.”
“Jack is an expert on the subject, he knows what he's talking about,” Sylphide said with undisguised admiration.
“Don’t tell me you’re a telepath? You can read our thoughts?” Owen asked offended.
“No, Owen! That's what I was trying to explain. That’s fantasy,” Jack retorted. “Telepathy is a communication mode, it allows two or more people to communicate via a psychic frequency, but it requires training and discipline,” he added.
“So what about the psychic wall, is that only for fun?”Ianto asked.
“I'm not saying aggressive telepathy doesn’t exist. It’s mental rape, psychic torture,” Jack replied, his eyes begging Ianto not to persist on this topic.
“So you can’t read our thoughts?” Owen insisted on bringing out his personal concern.
“Except when they scream. In short, when you think very hard: Go to hell! I can hear it as if you’d said it aloud,” Jack replied mockingly.
Sylphide was still staring at the monitor, she looked perplexed. Ianto considered her.
“Okay leave the telepathy case for later. Are there more good surprises?” he asked.
“I really don’t know what to think about the other areas; I imagine you’re good at math and logic...”
“I can manage.”
“We’ve got the result of the DNA comparison,” Owen announced, inviting Sylphide to join him on his own terminal. “And it appears to be a winning ticket.”
Jack and Ianto went to look over the shoulders of two doctors.
“Where did you find this DNA?” Sylphide asked very intrigued.
“Someone who crossed my path,” Jack replied.
“Not the Doctor,” Ianto set out as an obvious fact. Not only the DNA was partially human, but it belonged to someone female.
“No, but it is Time Lord DNA,” Jack admitted.
“Time Lords are legendary,” Sylphide exclaimed incredulously.
“That was what we were told back at the Time Agency. They were only ugly hobgoblins waved to scare newbies: Beware, if you fuck with the flow of time, they will fall above, clean up your mess, and you’ll be lucky if they don’t clean you out with it,” Jack replied. “In 1941, I made a beautiful mistake, the perfect blunder, it almost caused the extinction of the human race, just like that,” he said snapping his fingers. “The Doctor showed up and he cleaned up the mess. I was lucky, Rose was there, and I had saved her life,” he continued almost to himself.
The others, except Ianto, were completely floored.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Jack took Sylphide to the airport hotel. She would go back home on the first plane to join her family. He remained vague about the DNA sample’s origin. It upset her a bit.
“Your grandfather was a legend, you should be happy to know that?” he told her. “But you’d better keep that to yourself.”
“What about Ianto?”
“I’m afraid only time will bring answers.”
First chapter of the Archives season one here on LJ and Master list of both seasons here
End of the episode.
To be continued...