Fic: Reign of Scars; 5/15 [PG-13] TW/HL/DW crossover. Fix!it Big Bang
Title: Reign of Scars
Author: aeron_lanart
Beta: idontlikegravy
Artist: idontlikegravy - Art!.
Fandom(s): Highlander/Torchwood/Doctor Who (part of the Mystery Verse, my existing AU)
Characters/pairing: Gwen/Rhys, Siannon O'Niall (OFC) and Richie Ryan, with appearances from lots of other Torchwood and Doctor Who characters (both Classic and New Who).
Rating/Warnings: PG-13/teen. The only warnings are for language and angst, as it is a post Children of Earth story in the Torchwood scheme of things and the outcome of CoE is NOT the thing that's being fixed in this fic. Miracle Day is ignored in this verse. This is the direct sequel to Shattered in Aspect and includes some dialogue from that fic as part of it takes place in the same time period.
Disclaimer: The BBC/RTD own the Torchwood/Who universe and its characters. Panzer/Davis Productions own the Highlander universe and its characters. I own the OCs.
No copyright infringement intended, no profit made. Title and quote from the song of the same name by Pro-Jekt.
Summary: The Torchwood Hub is a hole in the ground, Jack Harkness has fled with no-one any the wiser as to his whereabouts and Gwen is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. However, while she still stands, there's a chance Torchwood could rise from the ashes of its destruction even though the road ahead is hidden in the shadows. This is the story of what happened to Torchwood in this verse during the 6 months at the end of Children of Earth, after the 456 and the destruction of The Hub, while Jack and Methos were wandering the world.
A/N:
Written for Fix-it Big Bang fixitstory. Please go here to see the lovely art.
Can also be read at AO3.
~ 4 ~
*
It was still dark when the insistent shrilling of the Torchwood phone woke Siannon from what had been the best sleep she'd had in ages. She groaned and reached out to grab the damn thing off her bedside table and as much as she wanted to swear and shriek like a Donegal fishwife at whoever had the temerity to wake her at such a god-awful early hour she managed a relatively normal sounding, if curt,
"Yes?"
"I think you'd better get here, and fast. All of you." It was Bambera, which filled Siannon with dread. Bambera rarely called them on the Torchwood phone, and she'd never rung them out of hours before. There was some sort of disturbance at the other end of the line and Siannon heard Bambera's voice crack like a whip of calm into the commotion, "Stand Down!" A breath later she was back on the phone. "Sod the getting here fast, you need to be here now. We have a situation." Siannon was scrambling for her clothes before the call terminated. Anything a brigadier of Bambera's experience called 'a situation' had to be dire. She banged on Lois' bedroom door on her way to the bathroom, thankful for once that Lois hadn't found somewhere else to stay yet. "Lois, get your arse into gear, we're going out. Now!" There was a sleepy sounding complaint and Siannon caught the word 'early' in the jumble of words but nothing else. "I know it's frigging early, I was asleep too. Just get moving, we're going to the Hub. I'm calling Gwen."
They were in the car and hurtling down the road to Gwen's place in about 5 minutes, pulling up outside her flat just as she came flying out of the front door, a worried looking Rhys peering around the door after her.
"What's the problem?" Gwen asked as soon as the car door had slammed shut on her and they sped away.
"Bambera didn't say," Siannon replied. "For all I know she could have a mutiny on her hands, it didn't sound good."
"A mutiny? Bambera?" Lois sounded as disbelieving of that theory as Siannon knew they all felt. She shrugged as she jumped a red light and took the corner way too fast, sending Gwen slithering across the back seat.
"We'll find out when we get there," she commented.
"If we get there in one piece," Gwen muttered from the back. "I think you must have taken lessons from Jack. Next time at least give me the chance to do up the bloody seatbelt!"
*
Gwen hung onto the seat as Siannon ignored all the warning signs, bumped up the kerb and drove the car over the pavement in an effort to get as close as possible to the temporary UNIT HQ that sat uneasily beside the ruins of the Hub. She stomped on the brakes and while the Citroën didn't do anything as undignified as stopping with a squeal of tyres - it had been Ianto's car after all, before he bequeathed it to Siannon, so Gwen wouldn't have expected anything less - it did come to an instant standstill within a hairsbreadth of the entrance. Gwen scrambled out of the back of the car even before the engine was switched off, Siannon close behind her. Lois followed more sedately, locked the car and handed the keys to Siannon.
"Glad you could join us," Beth said from her position guarding the entrance to the UNIT site.
"Where?" Gwen asked brusquely.
"Just go on in." Gwen strode past Beth without a second glance, aware of Siannon in her supporting position at her shoulder. The door to Bambera's office was only ajar, concealing what was on the other side, so Gwen approached cautiously, despite the fact she couldn't hear anything obviously untoward. She nudged the door open with her foot.
One of the first things Gwen noticed was that all of the UNIT personnel were from the ranks of those that Bambera had personally vetted and trusted; those with 'old school' values as she put it.
Bambera herself stood casually by her desk, gun in hand and with the safety off from what Gwen could tell but very carefully not aimed at the man with the silvering tawny hair who sat in the chair behind her desk with a face like thunder. He wasn't wearing a uniform but something about him screamed military to Gwen. On the other side of the room Ross Jenkins stood with another of his UNIT colleagues. They both had their guns trained on the remaining two occupants. Gwen didn't recognise the man with the shaved head and strong features who was trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, not an easy thing to accomplish with a gun pointed in your face. The other person she recognised only too well, the face had haunted too many of her nightmares for her not to. A glut of emotions flashed through her - anger, revulsion, bitterness, pain and denial - until she at last settled into a weary sort of resignation and took refuge in cool civility; Ianto would have been proud of her.
"Agent Johnson." Gwen nodded in greeting, the nod was returned.
"Ms Cooper," Johnson replied, with icy politeness.
The guns didn't waver a millimetre and Gwen sighed.
"Oh put those bloody guns down, will you. She's blown this place up once; if she wanted to again, guns wouldn't be enough to stop her." Gwen waited as both Ross and the other UNIT guy flicked a glance toward Bambera before they lowered their guns, though they didn't holster them. Before she even had the chance to take another breath there was a muffled curse from behind her and the scrape of a chair.
"Ancelyn!" Bambera snapped and all fell silent again. Gwen supposed she would have a formal introduction later, but it did explain his military bearing; the guy was a bloody knight. She took a step toward Johnson and the person she presumed was the missing member of Johnson's former team. Gwen swept her gaze over Johnson, cool and calculating; Johnson didn't flinch and returned her gaze impassively.
"You went AWOL," Gwen said.
"I did."
"Why? And why are you here?" Gwen asked. Johnson glanced at the man beside her who shrugged.
"I gave the state my loyalty; they betrayed me. In the process of that they betrayed the whole damn country. I regard my loyalty as a precious commodity, but it has to be earned and my previous employers do not deserve it, so I left when they tried to persuade me otherwise. The only person I now believe to be worthy of that loyalty is you, so here I am."
"And why should I accept it? You tried to destroy us, Johnson, and you damn near well succeeded."
"But I didn't, did I? None of us would be here otherwise. Torchwood, and its determination to protect the people still exists, you are living proof of that. I want to be a part of it."
"Give me one good reason why I should believe you."
"I don't have any, except for my word."
"I can't deny we would find you useful, but I don't trust you. Trust also has to be earned and the only thing stopping me from allowing Ancelyn and Siannon to cut you into tiny pieces is that I will never forget that day, so I remember the look on your face when I showed you the truth."
Judging by the blanching of Johnson's face and the tightening around her mouth, she also remembered it too well, unless she was a very good actor which was something Gwen had not completely discounted.
*
Siannon held her place at Gwen's shoulder in as quiet and composed a fashion as possible. Considering she was not actually facing an immortal she found the presence of her sword at her back extremely comforting, not that anyone save Gwen, and possibly Anceyln, was aware of the sword. As if her thought had triggered something, Ancelyn's voice dripped into the silence of the room, the formal cadences of his speech almost echoing in the stillness.
"You, little man who hides, did you ever witness the destruction your mistress wrought in her misplaced zeal?" There was no interruption so Siannon assumed Bambera had managed to emphasise the importance of not killing Johnson or her sidekick to Ancelyn.
The still nameless man looked up with a fierce expression on his face, though his posture remained at ease.
"My name is Simon Foster and I am not hiding. If I was hiding, why would I be here?"
Siannon couldn't see Ancelyn from where she was standing, and she didn't want to take her eyes off Johnson for a second to change that but she could imagine the sort of not-smile that would be decorating his face at Foster's declaration.
"Well then, Simon Foster, do you want to see? Mayhap you will find it illuminating," Ancelyn said. There was the sound of a chair being moved and Ancelyn's footsteps leaving the room.
"I don't think that is an invitation you may safely refuse, Foster. Off you pop." Bambera seemed almost dismissive but Siannon knew that wasn't the case at all and if Foster had half an ounce of sense he would realise that himself. He was waved out by Ross' colleague - the one whose name Siannon could never remember - and followed by Beth, who had appeared during the confrontation.
"What was the point of that?" Johnson challenged as they left the room. "You've just split your forces and if we were planning anything you would have just made our job a whole lot easier."
"I don't think so," Bambera replied. "Ancelyn has a passionate hatred for what you did here; it disgusts him to his very core. In his eyes it was an act of extreme dishonour which might not sound like much to you, but to him honour is everything; if you have no honour, you have no soul and are little more than dirt to be trampled underfoot. I think he'll give Foster an excellent alternate viewpoint to the one he already has about what was accomplished with your actions. And as for you, young lady…"
Despite her best intentions, Siannon couldn't help herself and had to stifle a slightly hysterical giggle. She doubted anyone had called Johnson a 'young lady' since she was about twelve and Bambera was probably the only person in the room who could get away with it, for all that Siannon had an age advantage of over a thousand years.
"Siannon!" Gwen said with a disgusted hiss as she elbowed Siannon, hard, in the side. Nevertheless Siannon was pleased to see - and feel - that the level of tension in the room had subsided a little; sometimes her sense of the ridiculous did her a favour, though there were plenty of times it hadn't.
"If you've quite finished?" Bambera asked Siannon as she came into her line of sight. Siannon nodded unapologetically, but remained silent. "In my opinion, Johnson, you're one of the few people who deserves to be incarcerated in the UNIT high security prison but I suspect that these two ladies might surprise you. I would count yourself lucky, if I were you, that you aren't dealing solely with me and mine; we would not be so forgiving." With that Bambera turned on her heel and indicated to Ross that they should leave the room.
"Do you have anything to add to your little speech on loyalty now that we're alone, Johnson? This is it," Gwen gestured at herself, Siannon and Lois. "This is Torchwood. You could bring us down completely with as little effort as you'd take to squash a fly."
Johnson smiled which was an odd looking expression on her face.
"I don't think so," she said. "You are a lot more resourceful than I think you'd like me to realise. Why else would she," Johnson pointed to Siannon, "be wearing a sword? Swords are a little anachronistic in this day and age wouldn't you say?" Siannon returned the smile with a cold one of her own, accepting the unspoken challenge in the process, and drew her sword. Johnson didn't flinch as the point came to rest against her chest, directly over her heart.
"Anachronistic, maybe, but you're still just as dead if you're stabbed or shot," Siannon said as if she were discussing nothing more important than the weather. "And you would be dead if I wanted you to be, believe me," she added.
"Oh I do. And I believe you will make true that threat if you think at any point that I have another agenda. Until then, I believe that Cooper will accept us at face value while you watch us like a hawk for any misstep. I can assure you that neither I nor Foster has another agenda, not any more; we burned our bridges in coming here."
"And what makes you think that, Johnson?" Siannon asked warily.
"The fact that I'm still alive. If Cooper wanted me dead, I'd be dead, either by your hand or hers."
"True." Siannon stepped away and re-sheathed her sword.
"So?"
Gwen sighed and stepped forward, walking a full circle around Johnson before she answered.
"We will use you, but we aren't going to trust you. Not yet. There are too many unanswered questions." She glanced at Siannon over her shoulder. "Siannon, you're going to need a bigger house," she commented as she turned and swept out of the room.
Siannon took unholy delight in Johnson's disgusted splutter of outrage at the prospect of the unwelcome house share but she didn't share the surprise, she'd guessed it was coming; it was the easiest way to keep them under surveillance. She wasn't sure Lois would appreciate it, but then Lois could always get a place of her own; hell, she could stay right where she was when Siannon moved out with her unexpected and hostile entourage.
"You'll get used to me," Siannon said to Johnson. "And while you may never get to like me I'm sure we'll develop a healthy respect for each other's skills. Just be certain that if you do anything to harm a single hair of Gwen Cooper's - or her husband's - head, I will cut you down where you stand without hesitation or a single regret, faster than you can draw breath." She drew close to Johnson, close enough that the other woman had to look up in order to maintain eye contact. "Do you understand?"
"Completely."
"Good. Now don't forget it, not for one minute. I have the capacity to be either the person you want at your side or your worst nightmare; the choice is yours." She didn't allow Johnson the chance to reply before she turned to follow Gwen out of the room, leaving Lois to follow after her.
The return from the Hub ruins was made in silence; Siannon drove them all after Gwen had insisted they would pick up Johnson's Land Rover the next day. Lois let them all into the house as Siannon hauled what luggage Johnson and Foster had brought with them from the boot of the car before she eventually followed, leaving the bags in the hall once she'd shut and locked the front door. Lois had led Johnson and Foster into the lounge and Siannon headed in that direction, coming to rest as she leant on the door frame and watched them do nothing more startling than have a cup of tea. She realised that Johnson and Foster looked worn out; going AWOL obviously hadn't been a cakewalk for them.
Gwen came to stand beside her. "Do you think we've done the right thing?" She asked. Siannon glanced once more at the weary figures sipping tea as Lois fussed around them, and sighed as Gwen linked her arm and leant against her.
"We're better off knowing where they are and my instinct tells me we're going to need them, despite the fact that part of me wants to make her hurt, and hurt badly," Siannon said.
"Oh I know that feeling; too well sometimes."
"And you can bet your bottom dollar that she's more than aware of that. Somehow I get the idea that we couldn't hurt her more than she already has been and I find that kind of… disquieting, I suppose."
"I think I know what you mean. What do you think happened to the rest of her team?"
"We're best not knowing, for now at least. Do you want to ask her?"
Gwen shook her head. "Good God, no! Well, not yet; I'll put it on my need-to-know list."
Siannon smiled at her gently. "That list is getting longer by the minute, if you hadn't noticed."
"I noticed; now come on, let's grab a cuppa before they drink it all." With that Gwen snuck her arm away from Siannon and strode into the room. In the face of such irrefutable logic, Siannon did the only thing she could and followed.
*
Chapter Five
Author: aeron_lanart
Beta: idontlikegravy
Artist: idontlikegravy - Art!.
Fandom(s): Highlander/Torchwood/Doctor Who (part of the Mystery Verse, my existing AU)
Characters/pairing: Gwen/Rhys, Siannon O'Niall (OFC) and Richie Ryan, with appearances from lots of other Torchwood and Doctor Who characters (both Classic and New Who).
Rating/Warnings: PG-13/teen. The only warnings are for language and angst, as it is a post Children of Earth story in the Torchwood scheme of things and the outcome of CoE is NOT the thing that's being fixed in this fic. Miracle Day is ignored in this verse. This is the direct sequel to Shattered in Aspect and includes some dialogue from that fic as part of it takes place in the same time period.
Disclaimer: The BBC/RTD own the Torchwood/Who universe and its characters. Panzer/Davis Productions own the Highlander universe and its characters. I own the OCs.
No copyright infringement intended, no profit made. Title and quote from the song of the same name by Pro-Jekt.
Summary: The Torchwood Hub is a hole in the ground, Jack Harkness has fled with no-one any the wiser as to his whereabouts and Gwen is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. However, while she still stands, there's a chance Torchwood could rise from the ashes of its destruction even though the road ahead is hidden in the shadows. This is the story of what happened to Torchwood in this verse during the 6 months at the end of Children of Earth, after the 456 and the destruction of The Hub, while Jack and Methos were wandering the world.
A/N:
Written for Fix-it Big Bang fixitstory. Please go here to see the lovely art.
Can also be read at AO3.
~ 4 ~
*
It was still dark when the insistent shrilling of the Torchwood phone woke Siannon from what had been the best sleep she'd had in ages. She groaned and reached out to grab the damn thing off her bedside table and as much as she wanted to swear and shriek like a Donegal fishwife at whoever had the temerity to wake her at such a god-awful early hour she managed a relatively normal sounding, if curt,
"Yes?"
"I think you'd better get here, and fast. All of you." It was Bambera, which filled Siannon with dread. Bambera rarely called them on the Torchwood phone, and she'd never rung them out of hours before. There was some sort of disturbance at the other end of the line and Siannon heard Bambera's voice crack like a whip of calm into the commotion, "Stand Down!" A breath later she was back on the phone. "Sod the getting here fast, you need to be here now. We have a situation." Siannon was scrambling for her clothes before the call terminated. Anything a brigadier of Bambera's experience called 'a situation' had to be dire. She banged on Lois' bedroom door on her way to the bathroom, thankful for once that Lois hadn't found somewhere else to stay yet. "Lois, get your arse into gear, we're going out. Now!" There was a sleepy sounding complaint and Siannon caught the word 'early' in the jumble of words but nothing else. "I know it's frigging early, I was asleep too. Just get moving, we're going to the Hub. I'm calling Gwen."
They were in the car and hurtling down the road to Gwen's place in about 5 minutes, pulling up outside her flat just as she came flying out of the front door, a worried looking Rhys peering around the door after her.
"What's the problem?" Gwen asked as soon as the car door had slammed shut on her and they sped away.
"Bambera didn't say," Siannon replied. "For all I know she could have a mutiny on her hands, it didn't sound good."
"A mutiny? Bambera?" Lois sounded as disbelieving of that theory as Siannon knew they all felt. She shrugged as she jumped a red light and took the corner way too fast, sending Gwen slithering across the back seat.
"We'll find out when we get there," she commented.
"If we get there in one piece," Gwen muttered from the back. "I think you must have taken lessons from Jack. Next time at least give me the chance to do up the bloody seatbelt!"
*
Gwen hung onto the seat as Siannon ignored all the warning signs, bumped up the kerb and drove the car over the pavement in an effort to get as close as possible to the temporary UNIT HQ that sat uneasily beside the ruins of the Hub. She stomped on the brakes and while the Citroën didn't do anything as undignified as stopping with a squeal of tyres - it had been Ianto's car after all, before he bequeathed it to Siannon, so Gwen wouldn't have expected anything less - it did come to an instant standstill within a hairsbreadth of the entrance. Gwen scrambled out of the back of the car even before the engine was switched off, Siannon close behind her. Lois followed more sedately, locked the car and handed the keys to Siannon.
"Glad you could join us," Beth said from her position guarding the entrance to the UNIT site.
"Where?" Gwen asked brusquely.
"Just go on in." Gwen strode past Beth without a second glance, aware of Siannon in her supporting position at her shoulder. The door to Bambera's office was only ajar, concealing what was on the other side, so Gwen approached cautiously, despite the fact she couldn't hear anything obviously untoward. She nudged the door open with her foot.
One of the first things Gwen noticed was that all of the UNIT personnel were from the ranks of those that Bambera had personally vetted and trusted; those with 'old school' values as she put it.
Bambera herself stood casually by her desk, gun in hand and with the safety off from what Gwen could tell but very carefully not aimed at the man with the silvering tawny hair who sat in the chair behind her desk with a face like thunder. He wasn't wearing a uniform but something about him screamed military to Gwen. On the other side of the room Ross Jenkins stood with another of his UNIT colleagues. They both had their guns trained on the remaining two occupants. Gwen didn't recognise the man with the shaved head and strong features who was trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, not an easy thing to accomplish with a gun pointed in your face. The other person she recognised only too well, the face had haunted too many of her nightmares for her not to. A glut of emotions flashed through her - anger, revulsion, bitterness, pain and denial - until she at last settled into a weary sort of resignation and took refuge in cool civility; Ianto would have been proud of her.
"Agent Johnson." Gwen nodded in greeting, the nod was returned.
"Ms Cooper," Johnson replied, with icy politeness.
The guns didn't waver a millimetre and Gwen sighed.
"Oh put those bloody guns down, will you. She's blown this place up once; if she wanted to again, guns wouldn't be enough to stop her." Gwen waited as both Ross and the other UNIT guy flicked a glance toward Bambera before they lowered their guns, though they didn't holster them. Before she even had the chance to take another breath there was a muffled curse from behind her and the scrape of a chair.
"Ancelyn!" Bambera snapped and all fell silent again. Gwen supposed she would have a formal introduction later, but it did explain his military bearing; the guy was a bloody knight. She took a step toward Johnson and the person she presumed was the missing member of Johnson's former team. Gwen swept her gaze over Johnson, cool and calculating; Johnson didn't flinch and returned her gaze impassively.
"You went AWOL," Gwen said.
"I did."
"Why? And why are you here?" Gwen asked. Johnson glanced at the man beside her who shrugged.
"I gave the state my loyalty; they betrayed me. In the process of that they betrayed the whole damn country. I regard my loyalty as a precious commodity, but it has to be earned and my previous employers do not deserve it, so I left when they tried to persuade me otherwise. The only person I now believe to be worthy of that loyalty is you, so here I am."
"And why should I accept it? You tried to destroy us, Johnson, and you damn near well succeeded."
"But I didn't, did I? None of us would be here otherwise. Torchwood, and its determination to protect the people still exists, you are living proof of that. I want to be a part of it."
"Give me one good reason why I should believe you."
"I don't have any, except for my word."
"I can't deny we would find you useful, but I don't trust you. Trust also has to be earned and the only thing stopping me from allowing Ancelyn and Siannon to cut you into tiny pieces is that I will never forget that day, so I remember the look on your face when I showed you the truth."
Judging by the blanching of Johnson's face and the tightening around her mouth, she also remembered it too well, unless she was a very good actor which was something Gwen had not completely discounted.
*
Siannon held her place at Gwen's shoulder in as quiet and composed a fashion as possible. Considering she was not actually facing an immortal she found the presence of her sword at her back extremely comforting, not that anyone save Gwen, and possibly Anceyln, was aware of the sword. As if her thought had triggered something, Ancelyn's voice dripped into the silence of the room, the formal cadences of his speech almost echoing in the stillness.
"You, little man who hides, did you ever witness the destruction your mistress wrought in her misplaced zeal?" There was no interruption so Siannon assumed Bambera had managed to emphasise the importance of not killing Johnson or her sidekick to Ancelyn.
The still nameless man looked up with a fierce expression on his face, though his posture remained at ease.
"My name is Simon Foster and I am not hiding. If I was hiding, why would I be here?"
Siannon couldn't see Ancelyn from where she was standing, and she didn't want to take her eyes off Johnson for a second to change that but she could imagine the sort of not-smile that would be decorating his face at Foster's declaration.
"Well then, Simon Foster, do you want to see? Mayhap you will find it illuminating," Ancelyn said. There was the sound of a chair being moved and Ancelyn's footsteps leaving the room.
"I don't think that is an invitation you may safely refuse, Foster. Off you pop." Bambera seemed almost dismissive but Siannon knew that wasn't the case at all and if Foster had half an ounce of sense he would realise that himself. He was waved out by Ross' colleague - the one whose name Siannon could never remember - and followed by Beth, who had appeared during the confrontation.
"What was the point of that?" Johnson challenged as they left the room. "You've just split your forces and if we were planning anything you would have just made our job a whole lot easier."
"I don't think so," Bambera replied. "Ancelyn has a passionate hatred for what you did here; it disgusts him to his very core. In his eyes it was an act of extreme dishonour which might not sound like much to you, but to him honour is everything; if you have no honour, you have no soul and are little more than dirt to be trampled underfoot. I think he'll give Foster an excellent alternate viewpoint to the one he already has about what was accomplished with your actions. And as for you, young lady…"
Despite her best intentions, Siannon couldn't help herself and had to stifle a slightly hysterical giggle. She doubted anyone had called Johnson a 'young lady' since she was about twelve and Bambera was probably the only person in the room who could get away with it, for all that Siannon had an age advantage of over a thousand years.
"Siannon!" Gwen said with a disgusted hiss as she elbowed Siannon, hard, in the side. Nevertheless Siannon was pleased to see - and feel - that the level of tension in the room had subsided a little; sometimes her sense of the ridiculous did her a favour, though there were plenty of times it hadn't.
"If you've quite finished?" Bambera asked Siannon as she came into her line of sight. Siannon nodded unapologetically, but remained silent. "In my opinion, Johnson, you're one of the few people who deserves to be incarcerated in the UNIT high security prison but I suspect that these two ladies might surprise you. I would count yourself lucky, if I were you, that you aren't dealing solely with me and mine; we would not be so forgiving." With that Bambera turned on her heel and indicated to Ross that they should leave the room.
"Do you have anything to add to your little speech on loyalty now that we're alone, Johnson? This is it," Gwen gestured at herself, Siannon and Lois. "This is Torchwood. You could bring us down completely with as little effort as you'd take to squash a fly."
Johnson smiled which was an odd looking expression on her face.
"I don't think so," she said. "You are a lot more resourceful than I think you'd like me to realise. Why else would she," Johnson pointed to Siannon, "be wearing a sword? Swords are a little anachronistic in this day and age wouldn't you say?" Siannon returned the smile with a cold one of her own, accepting the unspoken challenge in the process, and drew her sword. Johnson didn't flinch as the point came to rest against her chest, directly over her heart.
"Anachronistic, maybe, but you're still just as dead if you're stabbed or shot," Siannon said as if she were discussing nothing more important than the weather. "And you would be dead if I wanted you to be, believe me," she added.
"Oh I do. And I believe you will make true that threat if you think at any point that I have another agenda. Until then, I believe that Cooper will accept us at face value while you watch us like a hawk for any misstep. I can assure you that neither I nor Foster has another agenda, not any more; we burned our bridges in coming here."
"And what makes you think that, Johnson?" Siannon asked warily.
"The fact that I'm still alive. If Cooper wanted me dead, I'd be dead, either by your hand or hers."
"True." Siannon stepped away and re-sheathed her sword.
"So?"
Gwen sighed and stepped forward, walking a full circle around Johnson before she answered.
"We will use you, but we aren't going to trust you. Not yet. There are too many unanswered questions." She glanced at Siannon over her shoulder. "Siannon, you're going to need a bigger house," she commented as she turned and swept out of the room.
Siannon took unholy delight in Johnson's disgusted splutter of outrage at the prospect of the unwelcome house share but she didn't share the surprise, she'd guessed it was coming; it was the easiest way to keep them under surveillance. She wasn't sure Lois would appreciate it, but then Lois could always get a place of her own; hell, she could stay right where she was when Siannon moved out with her unexpected and hostile entourage.
"You'll get used to me," Siannon said to Johnson. "And while you may never get to like me I'm sure we'll develop a healthy respect for each other's skills. Just be certain that if you do anything to harm a single hair of Gwen Cooper's - or her husband's - head, I will cut you down where you stand without hesitation or a single regret, faster than you can draw breath." She drew close to Johnson, close enough that the other woman had to look up in order to maintain eye contact. "Do you understand?"
"Completely."
"Good. Now don't forget it, not for one minute. I have the capacity to be either the person you want at your side or your worst nightmare; the choice is yours." She didn't allow Johnson the chance to reply before she turned to follow Gwen out of the room, leaving Lois to follow after her.
The return from the Hub ruins was made in silence; Siannon drove them all after Gwen had insisted they would pick up Johnson's Land Rover the next day. Lois let them all into the house as Siannon hauled what luggage Johnson and Foster had brought with them from the boot of the car before she eventually followed, leaving the bags in the hall once she'd shut and locked the front door. Lois had led Johnson and Foster into the lounge and Siannon headed in that direction, coming to rest as she leant on the door frame and watched them do nothing more startling than have a cup of tea. She realised that Johnson and Foster looked worn out; going AWOL obviously hadn't been a cakewalk for them.
Gwen came to stand beside her. "Do you think we've done the right thing?" She asked. Siannon glanced once more at the weary figures sipping tea as Lois fussed around them, and sighed as Gwen linked her arm and leant against her.
"We're better off knowing where they are and my instinct tells me we're going to need them, despite the fact that part of me wants to make her hurt, and hurt badly," Siannon said.
"Oh I know that feeling; too well sometimes."
"And you can bet your bottom dollar that she's more than aware of that. Somehow I get the idea that we couldn't hurt her more than she already has been and I find that kind of… disquieting, I suppose."
"I think I know what you mean. What do you think happened to the rest of her team?"
"We're best not knowing, for now at least. Do you want to ask her?"
Gwen shook her head. "Good God, no! Well, not yet; I'll put it on my need-to-know list."
Siannon smiled at her gently. "That list is getting longer by the minute, if you hadn't noticed."
"I noticed; now come on, let's grab a cuppa before they drink it all." With that Gwen snuck her arm away from Siannon and strode into the room. In the face of such irrefutable logic, Siannon did the only thing she could and followed.
*
Chapter Five