A New Dawn 4
Title: A New Dawn
Part: 4/?
Rating: 18+
Warnings: Mentions of previous torture and rape
Genre: Angst, AU
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Owen, Tosh, Gwen
Summary: AU. The Torchwood team discover the truth about what happened on the Valiant and search for Jack. A dark fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: This is Part 3 of a Trilogy. Part 1 is the story Hidden Behind Our Appearances and Part 2 is Too Long A Sacrifice. You need to read those first or this will make no sense.
Previous chapter here: ohinyan.livejournal.com/20642.html
Chapter 4
Owen and Ianto had split the next month of DVDs in two. Ianto had the second half, so there was a gap of two weeks between the last one he had seen, and the first of the new set. The first thing that shocked him, as he started to watch, was the drastic change in Jack. No longer was he defiant when the Master, or his two sadistic guards, entered the cell. He immediately reacted with abject terror, cowering and cringing away from them. Ianto swallowed, but forced himself to continue watching as Jack was brutally butchered once again.
As Jack hung dead in his chains, the guards hauled in a huge metal spike and placed it behind him, so that he would not see it when he revived.
Ianto looked on in horror as the Master explained to Jack what was about to happen, and he was impaled on the spike. In an effort not to witness the full horror, he zoomed through the DVD on maximum speed. And the next one, and the next one, and the next one. It was 5 days later in onscreen time before Jack got off the spike. By this time, even though he had barely left his chair, Ianto felt like he'd run a marathon. He was watching it with all his muscles tensed ready for flight. An instinctive reaction to what was going on onscreen.
Suddenly, at 30 times normal speed, the Master, accompanied by Stevens and Modine, walked in. Ianto hastily stopped the DVD and backtracked to their entrance. He needed to hear what they had to say.
Jack was a mess, covered in blood, trembling with fear and pleading with the Master. Ianto cringed as Jack abased himself in front of the smirking Time Lord. He could hardly believe it when the Master ordered Jack to 'submit'. It was obvious what would happen if Jack did so, and Ianto was incredibly relieved when Jack rallied some last ditch defiance, and refused. Despite witnessing the atrocities the Master had inflicted on Jack, it had never crossed his mind that the Master would stoop to rape.
Ianto's relief was short lived, however, as the Master kicked Jack viciously and threatened to put Gwen or Ianto on the spike if he did not obey. Dread swept over him as he listened to the exchange, which resulted in Jack agreeing to do whatever the Master told him to, and begging the Master not to hurt any of the Torchwood team.
As Jack lay on the floor and spread his legs, Ianto hit the pause button and yelled “Owen!”as loud as he could.
* * * *
Down in the medical bay, Owen heard Ianto yell from the boardroom. He sounded panicked, and Owen raced up the stairs as fast as he could. Gwen and Joanne followed him. As they all ran into the boardroom, Ianto met them. He was deathly pale. “Not them,” he said to Owen, indicating the two girls.
Gwen and Joanne caught a brief glimpse of a man laying naked on the floor on the TV screen, before they were ushered out of the room.
“What is it?” asked Owen.
“I've found something,” explained Ianto shakily, “or at least I think I have, I stopped watching it so you could witness it too.” He hesitated, “God Owen, we made a massive mistake on the Valiant.”
Ianto went back to the point on the DVD where the Master had entered the room, and pressed play.
They watched as the Master threatened to hurt Gwen and Ianto. Jack, though clearly terrified, obeyed the Master and lay down. He allowed him to tie his hands with a chain, and loop it round his neck. And he barely moved as the Master knelt between his thighs and thrust into him.
It was far worse than Ianto could ever have anticipated. It was utterly brutal, and Jack died so many times. The Master didn't even stop while he was dead, obviously ecstatic when Jack died and revived.
When it ended and the Master left, Ianto stopped the DVD.
Owen looked at Ianto with shock.
“Jack was going to fight him,” murmured Ianto, fighting back tears. “Until he threatened me and Gwen, he was going to fight. And then he just lay there and let him do it! He let the Master rape him, for us.”
“The Master would have done it anyway,” Owen pointed out.
“Maybe, maybe not,” argued Ianto. “He may have been so busy torturing me, or Gwen, that he wouldn't have.” He picked up the DVD box. “This was one week before Jack told us he was working for the Master. I am so glad that he gave in and worked for him. Otherwise that sort of thing could have gone on for a long time. How could we have blamed him, and vilified him, for working for the Master? We should have understood!”
He looked at Owen, pleadingly. “Do you think he'll ever forgive me for treating him so horribly? I didn't just verbally attack him, though that was bad enough. At the end, I let that mob beat him up, and I didn't lift a finger to stop him being handed over to UNIT when it was all over. I'll never forgive myself, but do you think he could?”
Swimming in his own guilt, Owen was careful not to answer Ianto's question. He did not want to upset him any further by saying what he thought. “It wasn't just you Ianto,” Owen replied, “it was all of us. And we all refused to listen to him at the end.”
“That doesn't make it any better,” cried Ianto..
“Well, what can make it better, is doing all we can now. Which we already are doing,” Owen emphasised, trying to be positive. “We are going through the evidence, to see if we can make a case to get him vindicated.”
Ianto grabbed on to that like a lifeline. “Yes, Gwen should have something on the legal status of coercion by now. Let's go check with her.” He leaped out of his chair, and was heading for the door, when Owen stopped him.
“Ianto, I don't want the others to know what we saw yet. I think we should get the whole picture before we drop that bombshell on them.”
Ianto nodded bleakly. “OK, I won't say anything yet, but we will have to tell them eventually. Was there anything in the DVDs you watched, that I need to know about?”
Owen shook his head, “no, there was nothing significantly different from the first lot we watched. Although Jack was becoming more,” he groped for the right word, “fearful. Less defiant.”
“I noticed that too,” agreed Ianto. “It was very obvious after a two week gap. The Master was very close to completely breaking him.” He shuddered, “at least there is only another week to watch before Jack starts to work for the Master. Things should be better for him after that.”
* * * *
Gwen was understandably curious about what Ianto and Owen had been doing in the boardroom, but they were giving nothing away.
“Gwen, when Tosh gets back from lunch we're going to have a progress meeting in the boardroom,” Owen informed her. “Can you bring all the stuff you've gathered on the legal situation?”
“Sure,” she replied, “I'll tell Tosh when she comes in.”
Fifteen minutes later, the four of them were sitting in the boardroom. Ianto had worked his coffee magic. It was a way of calming his nerves.
“Right,” started Owen, “Tosh, have you made any progress on finding Jack?”
Tosh looked miserable. “No, I haven't managed to find any hint as to his whereabouts yet.”
“Surely there must be something?” asked Ianto desperately.
“If UNIT haven't found him after this long, he's got to have gone to ground really well,” Tosh pointed out. “I've only been searching for a day, I'm going to need more time.”
“That's OK Tosh, we know you're doing your best,” encouraged Owen. “Gwen, any progress on the legal front?”
Gwen looked even more depressed than Tosh. “Yes,” she answered, “but you aren't going to like it. I was hoping to find some further information before reporting, but the basic answer is that coercion, or duress, does count as a valid defense for most crimes. But, there are exceptions. And those are murder, attempted murder and treason involving the death of the sovereign.”
“Oh, God,” whispered Ianto. “You mean legally he's guilty, despite what we've seen?”
“I'm afraid so, Ianto,” Gwen confirmed. “Jack was convicted of treason against Her Majesty, aiding and abetting an alien invasion force, betraying humanity, torture and 28 counts of murder. Now there are no precedents for abetting an alien invasion, or betraying humanity under duress, and I'm not yet sure about torture, but for the 28 counts of murder, duress is not a defense.”
“What about the treason?” asked Tosh.
“That's a good question, it all depends on whether it includes the death of the sovereign.”
“The Queen is still alive,” Owen pointed out.
“Yes, but she was also murdered by the Master a couple of months after Jack started working for him,” Gwen pointed out. “And enough people know about that, for it to be unlikely that he'd get off the treason charge due to duress.”
“This is crazy,” Tosh cried. “How can they not allow duress of the type Jack was under, not to be a defense?”
“I'm quoting here,” said Gwen and, finding the correct place in her notes, read out “It is felt that, in the case of the most serious crimes, such as murder, no threat to the defendant, however extreme, should excuse commission of the crime.” She looked up at the rest of the team. “You're meant to die rather than be coerced into killing another person.”
“But Jack can't die,” yelled Ianto.
“No,” said Gwen gently. “But the law doesn't take his unique circumstances into account.”
Ianto was pacing up and down the boardroom at this point, looking like a volcano about to erupt. Tosh was practically in tears.
Owen put a hand on Tosh's shoulder. “We will sort this Tosh,” he promised. “We can all work double shifts. You keep on searching for Jack, and Gwen can do more research on the legalities. Ianto and I will carry on looking for evidence on the DVDs. We'll come up with something.”
As they watched Ianto and Owen leave, Gwen whispered to Tosh. “Is there something they aren't telling us? They both seem to be making this much more urgent than they did before, especially Ianto. He was frantic. And they kicked me out of the boardroom earlier.”
“There must be,” agreed Tosh.. “I'm really grateful it's getting them motivated, but I'm worried. And if they don't come clean soon, we're going to have to make them tell us. They've got no right to keep important things from us.”
“We were the ones who didn't want to watch the DVDs,” Gwen pointed out.
“Right,” acknowledged Tosh, “but we do need to know about anything significant.”
“Give them a couple of days,” advised Gwen. “They'll explain eventually, I'm sure. In the meantime lets do all that we can to find Jack and find someway to get him exonerated.”
Next chapter here: ohinyan.livejournal.com/21220.html
Part: 4/?
Rating: 18+
Warnings: Mentions of previous torture and rape
Genre: Angst, AU
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Owen, Tosh, Gwen
Summary: AU. The Torchwood team discover the truth about what happened on the Valiant and search for Jack. A dark fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: This is Part 3 of a Trilogy. Part 1 is the story Hidden Behind Our Appearances and Part 2 is Too Long A Sacrifice. You need to read those first or this will make no sense.
Previous chapter here: ohinyan.livejournal.com/20642.html
Chapter 4
Owen and Ianto had split the next month of DVDs in two. Ianto had the second half, so there was a gap of two weeks between the last one he had seen, and the first of the new set. The first thing that shocked him, as he started to watch, was the drastic change in Jack. No longer was he defiant when the Master, or his two sadistic guards, entered the cell. He immediately reacted with abject terror, cowering and cringing away from them. Ianto swallowed, but forced himself to continue watching as Jack was brutally butchered once again.
As Jack hung dead in his chains, the guards hauled in a huge metal spike and placed it behind him, so that he would not see it when he revived.
Ianto looked on in horror as the Master explained to Jack what was about to happen, and he was impaled on the spike. In an effort not to witness the full horror, he zoomed through the DVD on maximum speed. And the next one, and the next one, and the next one. It was 5 days later in onscreen time before Jack got off the spike. By this time, even though he had barely left his chair, Ianto felt like he'd run a marathon. He was watching it with all his muscles tensed ready for flight. An instinctive reaction to what was going on onscreen.
Suddenly, at 30 times normal speed, the Master, accompanied by Stevens and Modine, walked in. Ianto hastily stopped the DVD and backtracked to their entrance. He needed to hear what they had to say.
Jack was a mess, covered in blood, trembling with fear and pleading with the Master. Ianto cringed as Jack abased himself in front of the smirking Time Lord. He could hardly believe it when the Master ordered Jack to 'submit'. It was obvious what would happen if Jack did so, and Ianto was incredibly relieved when Jack rallied some last ditch defiance, and refused. Despite witnessing the atrocities the Master had inflicted on Jack, it had never crossed his mind that the Master would stoop to rape.
Ianto's relief was short lived, however, as the Master kicked Jack viciously and threatened to put Gwen or Ianto on the spike if he did not obey. Dread swept over him as he listened to the exchange, which resulted in Jack agreeing to do whatever the Master told him to, and begging the Master not to hurt any of the Torchwood team.
As Jack lay on the floor and spread his legs, Ianto hit the pause button and yelled “Owen!”as loud as he could.
* * * *
Down in the medical bay, Owen heard Ianto yell from the boardroom. He sounded panicked, and Owen raced up the stairs as fast as he could. Gwen and Joanne followed him. As they all ran into the boardroom, Ianto met them. He was deathly pale. “Not them,” he said to Owen, indicating the two girls.
Gwen and Joanne caught a brief glimpse of a man laying naked on the floor on the TV screen, before they were ushered out of the room.
“What is it?” asked Owen.
“I've found something,” explained Ianto shakily, “or at least I think I have, I stopped watching it so you could witness it too.” He hesitated, “God Owen, we made a massive mistake on the Valiant.”
Ianto went back to the point on the DVD where the Master had entered the room, and pressed play.
They watched as the Master threatened to hurt Gwen and Ianto. Jack, though clearly terrified, obeyed the Master and lay down. He allowed him to tie his hands with a chain, and loop it round his neck. And he barely moved as the Master knelt between his thighs and thrust into him.
It was far worse than Ianto could ever have anticipated. It was utterly brutal, and Jack died so many times. The Master didn't even stop while he was dead, obviously ecstatic when Jack died and revived.
When it ended and the Master left, Ianto stopped the DVD.
Owen looked at Ianto with shock.
“Jack was going to fight him,” murmured Ianto, fighting back tears. “Until he threatened me and Gwen, he was going to fight. And then he just lay there and let him do it! He let the Master rape him, for us.”
“The Master would have done it anyway,” Owen pointed out.
“Maybe, maybe not,” argued Ianto. “He may have been so busy torturing me, or Gwen, that he wouldn't have.” He picked up the DVD box. “This was one week before Jack told us he was working for the Master. I am so glad that he gave in and worked for him. Otherwise that sort of thing could have gone on for a long time. How could we have blamed him, and vilified him, for working for the Master? We should have understood!”
He looked at Owen, pleadingly. “Do you think he'll ever forgive me for treating him so horribly? I didn't just verbally attack him, though that was bad enough. At the end, I let that mob beat him up, and I didn't lift a finger to stop him being handed over to UNIT when it was all over. I'll never forgive myself, but do you think he could?”
Swimming in his own guilt, Owen was careful not to answer Ianto's question. He did not want to upset him any further by saying what he thought. “It wasn't just you Ianto,” Owen replied, “it was all of us. And we all refused to listen to him at the end.”
“That doesn't make it any better,” cried Ianto..
“Well, what can make it better, is doing all we can now. Which we already are doing,” Owen emphasised, trying to be positive. “We are going through the evidence, to see if we can make a case to get him vindicated.”
Ianto grabbed on to that like a lifeline. “Yes, Gwen should have something on the legal status of coercion by now. Let's go check with her.” He leaped out of his chair, and was heading for the door, when Owen stopped him.
“Ianto, I don't want the others to know what we saw yet. I think we should get the whole picture before we drop that bombshell on them.”
Ianto nodded bleakly. “OK, I won't say anything yet, but we will have to tell them eventually. Was there anything in the DVDs you watched, that I need to know about?”
Owen shook his head, “no, there was nothing significantly different from the first lot we watched. Although Jack was becoming more,” he groped for the right word, “fearful. Less defiant.”
“I noticed that too,” agreed Ianto. “It was very obvious after a two week gap. The Master was very close to completely breaking him.” He shuddered, “at least there is only another week to watch before Jack starts to work for the Master. Things should be better for him after that.”
* * * *
Gwen was understandably curious about what Ianto and Owen had been doing in the boardroom, but they were giving nothing away.
“Gwen, when Tosh gets back from lunch we're going to have a progress meeting in the boardroom,” Owen informed her. “Can you bring all the stuff you've gathered on the legal situation?”
“Sure,” she replied, “I'll tell Tosh when she comes in.”
Fifteen minutes later, the four of them were sitting in the boardroom. Ianto had worked his coffee magic. It was a way of calming his nerves.
“Right,” started Owen, “Tosh, have you made any progress on finding Jack?”
Tosh looked miserable. “No, I haven't managed to find any hint as to his whereabouts yet.”
“Surely there must be something?” asked Ianto desperately.
“If UNIT haven't found him after this long, he's got to have gone to ground really well,” Tosh pointed out. “I've only been searching for a day, I'm going to need more time.”
“That's OK Tosh, we know you're doing your best,” encouraged Owen. “Gwen, any progress on the legal front?”
Gwen looked even more depressed than Tosh. “Yes,” she answered, “but you aren't going to like it. I was hoping to find some further information before reporting, but the basic answer is that coercion, or duress, does count as a valid defense for most crimes. But, there are exceptions. And those are murder, attempted murder and treason involving the death of the sovereign.”
“Oh, God,” whispered Ianto. “You mean legally he's guilty, despite what we've seen?”
“I'm afraid so, Ianto,” Gwen confirmed. “Jack was convicted of treason against Her Majesty, aiding and abetting an alien invasion force, betraying humanity, torture and 28 counts of murder. Now there are no precedents for abetting an alien invasion, or betraying humanity under duress, and I'm not yet sure about torture, but for the 28 counts of murder, duress is not a defense.”
“What about the treason?” asked Tosh.
“That's a good question, it all depends on whether it includes the death of the sovereign.”
“The Queen is still alive,” Owen pointed out.
“Yes, but she was also murdered by the Master a couple of months after Jack started working for him,” Gwen pointed out. “And enough people know about that, for it to be unlikely that he'd get off the treason charge due to duress.”
“This is crazy,” Tosh cried. “How can they not allow duress of the type Jack was under, not to be a defense?”
“I'm quoting here,” said Gwen and, finding the correct place in her notes, read out “It is felt that, in the case of the most serious crimes, such as murder, no threat to the defendant, however extreme, should excuse commission of the crime.” She looked up at the rest of the team. “You're meant to die rather than be coerced into killing another person.”
“But Jack can't die,” yelled Ianto.
“No,” said Gwen gently. “But the law doesn't take his unique circumstances into account.”
Ianto was pacing up and down the boardroom at this point, looking like a volcano about to erupt. Tosh was practically in tears.
Owen put a hand on Tosh's shoulder. “We will sort this Tosh,” he promised. “We can all work double shifts. You keep on searching for Jack, and Gwen can do more research on the legalities. Ianto and I will carry on looking for evidence on the DVDs. We'll come up with something.”
As they watched Ianto and Owen leave, Gwen whispered to Tosh. “Is there something they aren't telling us? They both seem to be making this much more urgent than they did before, especially Ianto. He was frantic. And they kicked me out of the boardroom earlier.”
“There must be,” agreed Tosh.. “I'm really grateful it's getting them motivated, but I'm worried. And if they don't come clean soon, we're going to have to make them tell us. They've got no right to keep important things from us.”
“We were the ones who didn't want to watch the DVDs,” Gwen pointed out.
“Right,” acknowledged Tosh, “but we do need to know about anything significant.”
“Give them a couple of days,” advised Gwen. “They'll explain eventually, I'm sure. In the meantime lets do all that we can to find Jack and find someway to get him exonerated.”
Next chapter here: ohinyan.livejournal.com/21220.html