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Title: The Angel of Death (15/?)
Author: Emma
Characters: Jack Harkness, others
Rating: Starts PG. That's all I know.
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?
Summary: Far in the future, Jack meets someone he never expected to see again
Author's Note: I don’t know where this came from. I really don’t.
Author's Note: Fullerene and buckyballs
Author's Note: Sorry it has been so long between chapters!
Chapter fourteen is here; Chapter Thirteen is here; Other chapters here
“Tosh, calm down.” Jack pulled on a pair of exercise pants. “Check your TARDIS circuits. There should be a translevel communication system ready to be activated. Look for something that looks to human eyes like a fishing net made out of buckyball strings.”
“I see it.”
“All right. Now, tune your sensory inputs to it.”
“Jack, I don't know if I...”
“Of course you can. You're Toshiko Sato, the genius who developed force field technology. You can handle anything.” Jack ran for the control room, Ianto at his heels. “Besides, think of all the things you can do with it.”
There was a long silence and then a loud gasp. “Oh, Jack... it's wonderful!”
“I thought you'd like it. Now, the trace?”
“Hold on... Jack! The 456 turned the deep-sleep carrier around. They're taking it back to the station!”
“Can you get a message to Ai-Shi?”
“I think so. Yes.” Jack and Ianto traded a grin at Tosh's smug tone. They waited for a few minutes. “She says to tell you that she has managed to isolate the Household net and the part of the Tech net that controls the biosphere, but she can't get a signal out.” There was a brief pause. “She says to tell you she's decided.”
Jack growled. “Now she does it. Damned woman.”
Ianto touched his shoulder. “Jack? What's wrong?”
“Ai-Shi has been sick for a very long time. She's been planning to have herself implanted into a tech body, but...”
Suddenly he found himself slammed into a bulkhead as Ianto grabbed him by the throat and shoved him hard. The rage in his eyes was so familiar that Jack instinctively fought back, twisting out of Ianto's hands and reaching for a gun he hadn't carried in years. Cursing, he threw himself at Ianto in a full-body tackle, sending them both crashing onto the metal grating of the catwalk.
“And you're all right with that?” Ianto was screaming at him. “I thought you loved her! You're fine with her becoming like Lisa?”
The name seemed to hang between them like a curse. Jack felt sick to his stomach. He pushed away from Ianto, crawling backwards to sit with his back against the bulkhead. Ianto sat up and the expression of bewildered loss on his face made Jack's eyes fill with tears. He blinked them back; Tosh had warned him that the shock of getting his memory back could drive Ianto into a breakdown. He needed to stay in control.
Ianto struggled to a sitting position. “Jack? Who is... Lisa? Lisa...”
A shiver ran up Jack's spine as he realized that Ianto's Welsh accent had deepened to the honey drawl he still dreamed about. “Ianto...”
“I nearly... killed you...” Ianto moved until he was sitting next to Jack. “She nearly... Duw. Jack, what is happening to me?”
The despair in Ianto's voice felt like a physical blow. Jack put his arm around Ianto's shoulders and pulled him close. Ianto fought him for a few moments, then collapsed against him, hiding his face against Jack's neck. Jack could feel the convulsions beginning to shake his lover's body. He wrapped his arms around him and rocked gently.
“Hush. It'll be all right,” he whispered softly.
“It won't. I'm a. monster.” The words seemed to trigger a frenzy as Ianto scuttled away from Jack. “You have to lock me away before I turn on you.”
The words, oddly familiar, released Jack from his own terror. “No! Ianto, no!” He stood up, then grabbed Ianto and pulled him up, holding him against his chest. “Listen. Listen. Do you know how Angels are made?”
“The Ylnagii harvest DNA and recombine for best results, depending on what they need.” Ianto whispered into Jack's neck. “They say there are people who burn their dead rather than let the Ylnagii have them.”
“That's true, as far as it goes.” Jack pushed Ianto away gently. “But that's not quite the truth. Come to the control room. I think Tosh would like to be there too.”
He kept his arm around Ianto's shoulders as they walked. He prayed he would be able to find the right words to keep Ianto from a psychotic breakdown but the truth was that he had no answers. The Ylnagii had left Ianto's memories intact, and then Ll'nau had lied to Jack about it, something for which Jack would extract full payment at some point in the future. But right now he needed to concentrate on getting Ianto out of this alive and sane.
They erupted into the control room, skidding to a halt at the sight of the glimmering figure standing by the center column, fingers creating miniature rainbows as they flew over a keyboard. She wore, Jack noticed, amused in spite of his shock, jeans, a long-sleeved jumper that fitted over very nice curves, and high-heeled boots.
“Tosh?” Ianto's question came out in a sigh.
“Isn't it fantastic?” She looked at them over her shoulder, and her grin was incandescent. “I didn't realize I could do this. The coral says I'll be able to maintain the avatar for longer period of time as I learn to handle the power fluctuations.”
“I thought you had merged with the coral?”
“Not quite yet. It says I need a bit more training.” She looked back at the screen. “I've been sweeping the whole area for signals. Nothing so far. We're moving slowly, but I'm afraid of getting blindsided again.”
As he moved closer to examine the information on the data screen, Jack could feel the tingle Vortex energy wash over his nerve endings. “How broad the sweep?”
“As broad as I can make it. I do have one good piece of news. I scooped up some encrypted orders from New Cardiff. The Second Fleet has been diverted to Freeman's Dream. They're three days away.” They shared a grin that faded as they thought of the bodies in the hold of the deep-sleep carrier. “They might be too late.”
Jack sighed. “One crisis at a time, Tosh.” He extended a hand to Ianto, who twined their fingers together. “Ianto has remembered Lisa.”
The glimmer flared outwards, then settled back into a dull glow.
“Are you all right?” she asked Ianto in a soft whisper.
“No. Yes. I don't know!” Ianto hung on to Jack's hand as if it were a life line. “I know I look like Ianto Jones. My House Master told me they had done it so that Jack's protective instincts would be... activated, that's what they said. When you gave me access to some of the Torchwood files I realized they had done much more than that. I just can't figure out what!”
“Let's sit down and I'll explain what I know.” He pulled Ianto down onto the steps heading to the central column. “Tosh, would you stay? I think Ianto will need both of us.” He waited until the avatar sat down on Ianto's other side. “You don't just resemble Ianto Jones. You are Ianto Jones. No, wait, don't say anything until I finish.” He took a deep breath. “The Ylnagii do not just harvest DNA from the dying. They also harvest their consciousness.”
The Tosh avatar actually looked shocked. “Jack!”
“It seems an adult who dies at the hands of the 456 makes the best Angel because his consciousness retains all the rage and terror of his last minutes. So the Ylnagii optimize his DNA to produce the Angel modifications, grow the body, taking good care to retain the facial features, and return the consciousness to it. It seems the familiar face helps reconnect the consciousness to the body.”
“That can't be,” Ianto objected. “We Angels don't remember anything about previous lives.”
“According to LL'nau, the consciousness is wiped clean of actual memories, except for the 456 and its reaction to them. But for some reason that I will wring out of him when I next see him, yours wasn't. Your memories were only suppressed.”
“Duw. Why?”
“We don't know.”
Ianto shook his head. “And Lisa?”
“Your fiancée. The two of you were at Canary Wharf when the Cybermen attacked. She was partially converted. You managed to smuggle her into the Cardiff Hub.” Jack faced him unflinchingly. “I killed her when she went out of control and started killing people.”
“She threw me into a... fountain? And you kissed me. You brought me back.” He turned to Tosh. “Would you let me see everything now? The stuff in the secure Archive, not the public files for the curious.”
Tosh looked at Jack, who nodded. “Yes, but...”
He stared at her for a moment, then impulsively reached for her hand and was surprised to feel a faint touch in return.
“You're worried about me. We used to worry about each other, didn't we?”
“All the time.”
Ianto turned back to Jack. “Why hadn't you told me before?”
“Because I was worried that a flood of repressed memories would overwhelm you.”
Ianto seemed to think about it, then nodded. “You were probably right. But no more lies.”
“No more lies.”
Ianto chuckled unsteadily. “No wonder I wanted you from the moment I saw you. I’ve been in love with you for half my life.”
Jack ran his hand gently over Ianto’s hair. “That’s only fair, because I’ve been in love with you for longer than that. It feels I’ve loved you forever.”
Author: Emma
Characters: Jack Harkness, others
Rating: Starts PG. That's all I know.
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?
Summary: Far in the future, Jack meets someone he never expected to see again
Author's Note: I don’t know where this came from. I really don’t.
Author's Note: Fullerene and buckyballs
Author's Note: Sorry it has been so long between chapters!
Chapter fourteen is here; Chapter Thirteen is here; Other chapters here
“Tosh, calm down.” Jack pulled on a pair of exercise pants. “Check your TARDIS circuits. There should be a translevel communication system ready to be activated. Look for something that looks to human eyes like a fishing net made out of buckyball strings.”
“I see it.”
“All right. Now, tune your sensory inputs to it.”
“Jack, I don't know if I...”
“Of course you can. You're Toshiko Sato, the genius who developed force field technology. You can handle anything.” Jack ran for the control room, Ianto at his heels. “Besides, think of all the things you can do with it.”
There was a long silence and then a loud gasp. “Oh, Jack... it's wonderful!”
“I thought you'd like it. Now, the trace?”
“Hold on... Jack! The 456 turned the deep-sleep carrier around. They're taking it back to the station!”
“Can you get a message to Ai-Shi?”
“I think so. Yes.” Jack and Ianto traded a grin at Tosh's smug tone. They waited for a few minutes. “She says to tell you that she has managed to isolate the Household net and the part of the Tech net that controls the biosphere, but she can't get a signal out.” There was a brief pause. “She says to tell you she's decided.”
Jack growled. “Now she does it. Damned woman.”
Ianto touched his shoulder. “Jack? What's wrong?”
“Ai-Shi has been sick for a very long time. She's been planning to have herself implanted into a tech body, but...”
Suddenly he found himself slammed into a bulkhead as Ianto grabbed him by the throat and shoved him hard. The rage in his eyes was so familiar that Jack instinctively fought back, twisting out of Ianto's hands and reaching for a gun he hadn't carried in years. Cursing, he threw himself at Ianto in a full-body tackle, sending them both crashing onto the metal grating of the catwalk.
“And you're all right with that?” Ianto was screaming at him. “I thought you loved her! You're fine with her becoming like Lisa?”
The name seemed to hang between them like a curse. Jack felt sick to his stomach. He pushed away from Ianto, crawling backwards to sit with his back against the bulkhead. Ianto sat up and the expression of bewildered loss on his face made Jack's eyes fill with tears. He blinked them back; Tosh had warned him that the shock of getting his memory back could drive Ianto into a breakdown. He needed to stay in control.
Ianto struggled to a sitting position. “Jack? Who is... Lisa? Lisa...”
A shiver ran up Jack's spine as he realized that Ianto's Welsh accent had deepened to the honey drawl he still dreamed about. “Ianto...”
“I nearly... killed you...” Ianto moved until he was sitting next to Jack. “She nearly... Duw. Jack, what is happening to me?”
The despair in Ianto's voice felt like a physical blow. Jack put his arm around Ianto's shoulders and pulled him close. Ianto fought him for a few moments, then collapsed against him, hiding his face against Jack's neck. Jack could feel the convulsions beginning to shake his lover's body. He wrapped his arms around him and rocked gently.
“Hush. It'll be all right,” he whispered softly.
“It won't. I'm a. monster.” The words seemed to trigger a frenzy as Ianto scuttled away from Jack. “You have to lock me away before I turn on you.”
The words, oddly familiar, released Jack from his own terror. “No! Ianto, no!” He stood up, then grabbed Ianto and pulled him up, holding him against his chest. “Listen. Listen. Do you know how Angels are made?”
“The Ylnagii harvest DNA and recombine for best results, depending on what they need.” Ianto whispered into Jack's neck. “They say there are people who burn their dead rather than let the Ylnagii have them.”
“That's true, as far as it goes.” Jack pushed Ianto away gently. “But that's not quite the truth. Come to the control room. I think Tosh would like to be there too.”
He kept his arm around Ianto's shoulders as they walked. He prayed he would be able to find the right words to keep Ianto from a psychotic breakdown but the truth was that he had no answers. The Ylnagii had left Ianto's memories intact, and then Ll'nau had lied to Jack about it, something for which Jack would extract full payment at some point in the future. But right now he needed to concentrate on getting Ianto out of this alive and sane.
They erupted into the control room, skidding to a halt at the sight of the glimmering figure standing by the center column, fingers creating miniature rainbows as they flew over a keyboard. She wore, Jack noticed, amused in spite of his shock, jeans, a long-sleeved jumper that fitted over very nice curves, and high-heeled boots.
“Tosh?” Ianto's question came out in a sigh.
“Isn't it fantastic?” She looked at them over her shoulder, and her grin was incandescent. “I didn't realize I could do this. The coral says I'll be able to maintain the avatar for longer period of time as I learn to handle the power fluctuations.”
“I thought you had merged with the coral?”
“Not quite yet. It says I need a bit more training.” She looked back at the screen. “I've been sweeping the whole area for signals. Nothing so far. We're moving slowly, but I'm afraid of getting blindsided again.”
As he moved closer to examine the information on the data screen, Jack could feel the tingle Vortex energy wash over his nerve endings. “How broad the sweep?”
“As broad as I can make it. I do have one good piece of news. I scooped up some encrypted orders from New Cardiff. The Second Fleet has been diverted to Freeman's Dream. They're three days away.” They shared a grin that faded as they thought of the bodies in the hold of the deep-sleep carrier. “They might be too late.”
Jack sighed. “One crisis at a time, Tosh.” He extended a hand to Ianto, who twined their fingers together. “Ianto has remembered Lisa.”
The glimmer flared outwards, then settled back into a dull glow.
“Are you all right?” she asked Ianto in a soft whisper.
“No. Yes. I don't know!” Ianto hung on to Jack's hand as if it were a life line. “I know I look like Ianto Jones. My House Master told me they had done it so that Jack's protective instincts would be... activated, that's what they said. When you gave me access to some of the Torchwood files I realized they had done much more than that. I just can't figure out what!”
“Let's sit down and I'll explain what I know.” He pulled Ianto down onto the steps heading to the central column. “Tosh, would you stay? I think Ianto will need both of us.” He waited until the avatar sat down on Ianto's other side. “You don't just resemble Ianto Jones. You are Ianto Jones. No, wait, don't say anything until I finish.” He took a deep breath. “The Ylnagii do not just harvest DNA from the dying. They also harvest their consciousness.”
The Tosh avatar actually looked shocked. “Jack!”
“It seems an adult who dies at the hands of the 456 makes the best Angel because his consciousness retains all the rage and terror of his last minutes. So the Ylnagii optimize his DNA to produce the Angel modifications, grow the body, taking good care to retain the facial features, and return the consciousness to it. It seems the familiar face helps reconnect the consciousness to the body.”
“That can't be,” Ianto objected. “We Angels don't remember anything about previous lives.”
“According to LL'nau, the consciousness is wiped clean of actual memories, except for the 456 and its reaction to them. But for some reason that I will wring out of him when I next see him, yours wasn't. Your memories were only suppressed.”
“Duw. Why?”
“We don't know.”
Ianto shook his head. “And Lisa?”
“Your fiancée. The two of you were at Canary Wharf when the Cybermen attacked. She was partially converted. You managed to smuggle her into the Cardiff Hub.” Jack faced him unflinchingly. “I killed her when she went out of control and started killing people.”
“She threw me into a... fountain? And you kissed me. You brought me back.” He turned to Tosh. “Would you let me see everything now? The stuff in the secure Archive, not the public files for the curious.”
Tosh looked at Jack, who nodded. “Yes, but...”
He stared at her for a moment, then impulsively reached for her hand and was surprised to feel a faint touch in return.
“You're worried about me. We used to worry about each other, didn't we?”
“All the time.”
Ianto turned back to Jack. “Why hadn't you told me before?”
“Because I was worried that a flood of repressed memories would overwhelm you.”
Ianto seemed to think about it, then nodded. “You were probably right. But no more lies.”
“No more lies.”
Ianto chuckled unsteadily. “No wonder I wanted you from the moment I saw you. I’ve been in love with you for half my life.”
Jack ran his hand gently over Ianto’s hair. “That’s only fair, because I’ve been in love with you for longer than that. It feels I’ve loved you forever.”
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