Title: The Siege of Annwfn (10/10)

Author: Emma

Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Torchwood Three Team, Others.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: Oh, please. If I owned them, would I let some of those idiots write the scripts? And if I were making any money off them, would I be where they could find me?

Spoilers: None. This takes place in my Homecoming AU, a few months after The Eye of Neith.

Summary: The only things that stand between our Universe and disaster are Torchwood Three and Ianto’s growing powers.
Author's Note: The next story in this Universe will be The Hour of the Wolf; however, Captain John Hart insists that I tell you what happened to change his life around. So next up, A Very Private War.

            The Doctor rushed to stand over Jack’s and Ianto’s bodies, using his sonic screwdriver almost like a sword to deflect the energy being thrown at them. The ghostly Time Lords pressed in, trying to overwhelm him. The attack forced him to his knees, but he still managed to block their thrusts.

            “Andy, John,” he shouted, “get inside that room. Seven items with identical symbols on them. Start smashing!”

            Two of the ghosts tried to follow John and Andy, but when they reached the doorway they bounced back as if they had hit a brick wall. The Doctor’s actions had given Ianto a little breathing space. He knew he wasn’t strong enough to take the ghosts on by himself, but he could help the Doctor keep them pinned in place until John and Andy could finish their job.

            He didn’t have long to wait. The sound of smashing glass from the other room made the ghosts scream in agony. The attack ended as abruptly as it had begun.

            “Stop! Please stop!”

            “Andy, John,” the Doctor shouted, “hold off for a moment!” He turned to Jack and Ianto. “Are you two all right?”

            Ianto helped Jack to stand up. “We’re fine, Doctor.”

            “Yeah,” Jack muttered, “as soon as the elves stop playing bagpipes in my head I’ll be just great!”

            “Well, then, let’s go see what’s what. Allons-y, gentlemen.”

            The room was round, and not very large. A central column carved to resemble a tree supported a domed crystal roof. Its branches spread across the glass and ran down the walls. The tree was circled by a large platform with four staircases leading up to it from each cardinal point, ending in a work station complete with crystal dials and buttons. At one end of the room, seven high-backed chairs had been placed in a semicircle, facing the tree. In each chair rested a carved crystal casket. Two of them had been smashed to powder. Andy and John stood over a third, guns at the ready. 

            “It’s a TARDIS control room!” Jack said to the Doctor. “There are a few differences, but that’s what this is supposed to be.”

            “In honour of our Lady.” One of the ghosts spoke directly to the Doctor, ignoring Jack as if he had been a piece of furniture. “She was lost to us in the War.”

            “Lost?” A harsh voice said contemptuously. They turned to face the speaker. The young man Jack had seen at the hospital stood in a small archway. He was secured to a large ring set in the stone by a thick bluish-gray metal chain long enough to allow him to move all through the rooms and probably the landing outside.

            The ghostly Time Lord turned and pointed at the young man, who collapsed to his knees, tears running down his face. The Doctor ran to his side, but was shoved to the ground as a bolt of energy smashed into the wall right above his head. He turned to see  another one of the ghosts start to point.

            “Oi! Gwallgofddyn!” bellowed Andy, as he brought the butt of his gun down on top of one of the caskets. “Do you want me to finish this off?”

            “No!”

            “Then behave!”

            The Doctor jumped up then assisted the young man to his feet. “My thanks. Gwair, is it?”

            “Gwair…” he broke off, laughing bitterly. “Captive, that’s what that means. I’ve been here so long, I’ve nearly forgotten my own name. I am Tyren, and I was an engineer at the hyper-loom complex in the Eye of Harmony.”

            “Then my thanks to Tyren, TARDIS Engineer.” The Doctor shook his hand. “And we better see about this.”

            He pressed the sonic screwdriver against the section of the chain where it has been soldered to itself. There was a sound like frying sausages and an acrid smell that scraped the back of the throat. The chain fell open at Gwair’s – Tyren’s – feet.

            “Tyren, where is Donna Noble?" Jack asked.

            “One more illusion to destroy, Captain Harkness,” Tyren pointed at the column. “The device you used to get here should work.”

            John walked to the center of the room. “Where?”

            “Where the column and the platform meet.”

            The ghost who had fired at the Doctor surged towards John. “Nooo!”

            “Listen, you moron,” Andy tapped the casket with the butt of his gun, this time chipping off several small pieces. “I told you to behave!”

            John aimed the manipulator at the column and pressed the buttons. Parts of the column and the platform faded away. In their place was a framework of gleaming black metal supporting a cauldron-shaped space outlined by nine white spheres that gleamed like pearls. Lines extended from the pearls, creating a cradle where red-gold energy burned sullenly.

            “A hyper-loom!” said the Doctor. “You have been trying to grow a TARDIS?”

            Tyren nodded. “They thought it was safe now.”

            “Be silent!” snapped one of the ghosts. “This is Time Lord business.”

            “Very well,” said the Doctor. “Time Lord to Time Lord, who are you and what in the name of Rassilon do you think you’re doing?”

            “Our Universe was overrun by Daleks. We could not hold them back. Our crew was instructed to defend the Neural Construction Docks.  We came under heavy fire and our Lady was damaged beyond repair. With the last of her strength she built us this Universe so we could start again someday.”

            “Ummm… I see.” The Doctor and Jack exchanged a look. “Tyren, do you corroborate this story?”

            “No, I do not.” The young man’s eyes were full of contempt as he looked at the cowering Time Lords. “They were so terrified of the Daleks that they tried to bargain. Contacted the commander of one of the advance fleets, turned over all the defense plans, the routes to the Docks, everything they could get, in exchange for their lives. Well, if you know Daleks you know how well that worked. They barely managed to get away. They showed up at the Nursery one step ahead of the Dalek fleet and grabbed one of the hyper-looms…and me. Then they ran, looking for any bolt hole.”

            “And they found the Rift,” Jack prompted.

            “We hid inside it for centuries, searching for the right place, one where Time Lords and Daleks exterminated each other. They thought it would be easier for them. Their probability reads said this was the place, so they used up the last of their fuel to break free of the Rift.” He laughed. “When they realized they had gotten it wrong again, they did what they do best. They hid. Cannibalized their TARDIS to create this place and send it back in time, then discarded their bodies and sealed themselves in their caskets.”

            “Chameleon arches?”

            “Yes. Some Time Lords carried them to battle, as a last measure.” Tyren shrugged. “And there we stayed for a millennia, waiting until it was safe to emerge, monitoring the energy patterns for the appearance of wild TARDIS they could use.”

            “And their Lady?” Ianto asked softly.

            “When she realized what they had done, what they were, she self-terminated. I had never seen a TARDIS commit suicide before.” He sounded like a lost child. “I couldn’t stop her!”

            There was a long silence, then the Doctor turned to the ghosts. “Jack? Whom do you believe?”

            Jack grinned fiercely. “Tyren.”

            “You would believe him rather than your own kin? You would trust this monstrosity? His monstrous lover? They are wrong, they do not belong in a Time Lord universe.” One of the ghosts addressed the Doctor. “We could help you recreate Gallifrey. We could be friends, colleagues. My name is…”

            “Be silent,” the Doctor said mildly. “You have forfeited your right to a name and to any claim of kinship. As for these monstrosities, whatever they are or will be, they are mine. Mine to care for and protect and love. The one you stole was my best friend, the sister of my spirit. Do you really think I would trade her for you? Let you turn her into your servant?”

            ‘That’s the best part of it,” Gwair said. “They can’t. She refuses to accept imprinting.”

            “Well, she wouldn’t, would she?  The poem says the cauldron will not cook the food of a coward or one forsworn. Miss Noble sounds like a hell of a lady. She wouldn’t want any business with this lot.” Andy looked at Tyren with a smile. “You wrote it, didn’t you?”

            “They let me out from time to time to observe and report back. And… to do what they want. I saw the Doctor and Captain Harkness and I knew I would have a chance. So I went back to the almost-beginning and planted the poem on the bard.” He laughed. ‘They always underestimated me. I’m a time Engineer. I have a few tricks of my own.”

            The Doctor reached into the hyper-loom to stroke the energy; it seemed to grow brighter at his touch. “Release her, Tyren. As for the rest of you…”

            “Can’t you understand? We want to live again, to have bodies again, to feel!”

            “Whose bodies were you planning to use? Whose lives would you have stolen?” The Doctor smiled bitterly. “And what have you done to me? Now I have to destroy my own one more time.”

            *Tell the Other’s One that it is not his place. The crime was committed against TARDIS. We both speak for our kind.*

            “Doctor,” Ianto said. “The TARDIS say that it is up to them to dispense justice in this case. I really don’t think we should interfere.”

            The Doctor stared at him for a moment, then nodded and stepped back.

            *Like this.*

            Ianto could feel the two TARDIS reach into his mind. He expanded again and again as the Vortex traveled through him. He looked at the ghosts, and in less time than it takes a heart to beat twice he measured and chose carefully. The caskets exploded as the ghosts winked out of existence.

            “Duw,” Andy whispered. “Can we just get out of here?”

            “My thoughts exactly,” said John. He took off his wrist strap and laid it on the platform. “We have ten minutes. Let’s move, people. Tyren, with us.”

            “I cannot. I am over a thousand years old. My body is maintained by the same energy that sustains this Universe. When it disappears so will I. As will the hounds.” He grinned joyfully. “We will be free. Go, all of you. Run!”

            They pelted down the stairs, across the courtyard, and through the open castle gates. Ianto could hear Jack and the Doctor laughing like idiots and realized he was grinning himself. As they neared the standing stone, they could see the dome starting to collapse. Lightning crisscrossed its surface and set the copper grass on fire; from behind them came the sounds of glass and metal being crushed. They dove through the opening just as it was starting to fold in on itself, landing in a heap on the dirt floor of the dig.

            The Doctor turned over, narrowly avoiding shoving an elbow into Andy’s stomach, to find a ball of red-gold energy floating in front of him. He extended a hand. The energy enveloped it, then flowed up his arm, rubbed against his face like a cat, then winked out.

            “Good-bye, Donna,” the Doctor voice hitched. “You were fantastic.”

            Ianto leaned into Jack and whispered. “He doesn’t get it yet.”

            “Get what?”

            “Jack, how did the doctor get his TARDIS?”

            “He… well… requisitioned it.”

            “He stole it, Jack.” Ianto chortled. “And it never occurred to him to ask himself why a TARDIS that was already bonded to another would allow herself to be stolen so easily?”

            Jack’s jaw dropped half way to his knees. ‘You mean…”

            “She’s not only traveling through space, but back in time. Soon she will join a small herd that will be corralled and taken to the hyper-looms at the Eye of Harmony. She will grow herself, and she will wait for him until he is ready.”

            Jack gave a great shout of laughter. His merriment set Ianto off and the two laughed until tears ran down their faces.

            “Oi, you two!” The Doctor bounced up to them “What’s so funny?”