Title: A Very Private War (2/7)

Author: Emma

Characters: John Hart, Torchwood Three team

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

Summary: John Hart is pulled back in time to fight a war he does not remember

            John sheathed the sword as he ran. They kept as close as they could to the walls of the Millennium Centre, which offered damn little protection but kept them out of the spheres' direct light of sight.  He followed her up Pierhead Street – and how the woman could manage to move so fast in high heels and toting a gun twice as big as her torso was a great mystery to him – and then left on Bute Place towards the parking structure that hid Torchwood’s garage.  Getting to the building meant sprinting across open space, but with a little luck they could make it. The spheres seemed to be concentrating on the areas around the waterfront.

            Their luck ran out a few steps from the entrance. John heard the angry-wasp buzz before he saw the sphere. He shoved Toshiko into a shallow nook created by a floor-to-ceiling window and turned to scan the street.

            “Hey!”

            “Hush,” he said. “They’re tracking us. If we run into the building now we could lead them right to the Hub. We’re going to have to make them think we were just trying to hide in the tunnel. When I say go, run past the front door. I’ll try to distract them. You can double back and use the side entrance.”

            “Just who the hell are you?”

            “Survival first, explanations later. Go!”

            They moved simultaneously. John ran back towards the Centre, dodging behind abandoned cars, but the expected bolts of energy did not materialize. Instead the buzzing got louder and more frantic as the sphere searched. He stuck his head out warily and got a good look at it. It looked a little dinged; one of its blades was missing and another hung uselessly from its socket. Just my luck. A pus bag out for revenge.

            The sphere stopped suddenly and whirled about, focusing on something behind it. John had a sinking feeling he knew what it would be. The staccato rap of a high-velocity rifle confirmed his suspicions. The crazy woman was standing almost out in the open, firing at the sphere. Bullets bounced off the metal, but the speed at which they were coming seemed to be keeping it off balance.

            John knew the standoff would not last long. The thing seemed invulnerable and sooner or later either Toshiko would run out of bullets or it would figure out she couldn’t really hurt him. They couldn’t beat it; all he could do was figure out a way to escape. And with machinery, low tech was always a better bet.

            He looked around for something to use. The small lorry he was hiding behind had been nearly ripped in two by a beam; several cans of paint had tumbled down onto the pavement. He grabbed one that seemed basically undamaged and popped it open. Hefting it by the wire handle he ran out into the middle of the street.

            “Hey! Pus bag! Over here!”

            John actually heard it giggle as it turned back towards him. At the speed the thing was moving, he would get only one chance. He waited until the sphere was nearly within touching distance, and then flung the paint directly at what seemed to be its main sensor and ran towards Toshiko. Without slowing down he grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

            The side door of the car park was unlocked. They raced downstairs to the lowest level and up to the blank wall with its small, insignificant door hidden behind the pillar. Without saying a word, Toshiko pressed her thumb to what seemed to be a regulation lock.

            As they stepped through, John heard the sound of guns being cocked. He had been expecting it, so he held his hands out in plain sight, fingers spread. Ianto Jones walked up behind him and searched him quickly but thoroughly.

            “Sword, two knives. No other weapons,” he announced to the room at large. “Vortex manipulator seems permanently attached.”

            “Molecular bonding,” said John mildly. “And not my doing.”

            “He knows a hell of a lot about us,” Toshiko said. “He came through the Rift with the Toclafane…”

            “Toclafane!”

            Gwen Cooper looked at him unsmilingly over the barrel of her gun. “You know what they are?”

            “No. Toclafane is the name of a monster that grandmothers use to scare disobedient children. You would say… boogeyman?” He shook his head. “Doesn’t make any sense.”

            “Who are you?” Toshiko asked.

            “I’m a friend of Jack’s,” he said, mentally editing as he went. “A former colleague, you might say.”

            “From the future,” Gwen said with certainty. “If you’re from the future you have to know what’s going on. And don’t give me any of the you shouldn’t know too much about the future crap. These fuckers are decimating the world and I don’t give much of a damn about anything else at the moment.”

            “I don’t. I don’t have any memory of anything like this ever happening. Where is Jack? I can’t run into him now. Believe me.”

            “Left with the Doctor a few weeks ago. Then Prime Minister Harold bloody Saxon announces first contact with an alien race. Then we get sent to the bloody Himalayas.” Gwen motioned for him to move. “Inside. You seem to know a lot. Show us the way.”

            John walked down the short corridor to the cog door. “I can’t open the door. The last time I visited the Hub you had upgraded to a different system.”

            Ianto blocked John’s view as he opened the door and deactivated the alarms. John stepped through to find two more guns pointed at him.

            ‘Dr. Harper, Mr. Williams.” He raised his hands again. “You’re a very cynical woman, Ms. Cooper.”

            “Hard times, Mr…”

            “Hart. John Hart.”

             “You’re sure you don’t know what this is about?”

            “Certain. I was sitting on a beach watching the day go by and three of those ridiculous things appeared and starting chopping down people. I managed to hurt a couple, though not much. They pulled me in when they opened the Rift.” At their disbelieving looks, he snorted. “Look, I think I would remember Cardiff being turned to rubble by boogeymen, don’t you?”

            Toshiko came up to him holding a triangular device. ‘This is an Ixelian chronodetector. May I?”

            He nodded. She ran the device over him and waited until there was a soft pinging sound and a small screen lit up. She turned it over so he could read it.

            “That is not possible.”

            “What is it, Tosh?” Owen asked.

            “I thought that if Mr. Hart was from the future and didn’t remember the Toclafane, there could be only one of two reasons. One, he’s from a different time stream and he’s just been dumped on ours by the Rift, or two, his very presence here has created a different future.” She collapsed on her chair, suddenly exhausted. “I was wrong. It might be even worse.”

            “What do you mean?” asked Gwen.

            “According to the chronodetector, Mr. Hart’s molecules experienced a massive temporal disruption a little over thirty-one million seconds ago. So did everything he’s wearing, including his vortex manipulator. Ianto, let me see those.” She ran the chronodetector over the weapons he was holding. “These too.”

            “What does that mean?”

            “I don’t know what it means, but it suggests that at some point in the future, the whole Universe will lose about a year.”