Fic: The Sea After a Storm (80/?)
Title: The Sea After a Storm, Chapter 80
Rating: R
Warnings: None really, just Zombie!Owen ;-)
Spoilers: Season Two thru Dead Man Walking (2x07)
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Torchwood, Doctor Who and all their wonderfulness belong to the Mighty Beeb and He Who Must Not Be Named. All ©'s to Matt Jones for situations and dialogue borrowed from Dead Man Walking. No infringement, only worship intended!
Summary: In which the glove fights back...
Notes: Hey - posted on time again! WOO! You can find all the previous chapters of The Sea After a Storm here. This is a sequel to Vizzini’s Rule and To The Pain. Thanks again and forever to my amazing beta and wonderful friend
thraceadams for all the help and support and beta work; any mistakes are mine!
The Sea After a Storm: Chapter Eighty
Previously on The Sea After a Storm: Owen decides the best way to stop the thing in the darkness from using him is to embalm his body, but the Resurrection Glove has other ideas...
"Lockdown!" Jack ordered over Martha's screams as she struggled with the glove.
Ianto raced up the stairs, running to his workstation and entering the lockdown code into the computer. He paused for a moment to listen for the sound of all the locks engaging and then turned back to the medbay, stopping when something caught his eye. The green-taped handle of Jack's shinty stick - a caman, he called it - was sticking out from under a pile of papers. Thinking it might come in handy to have something he could use to whack the glove from a distance, Ianto grabbed it and rushed back to medbay.
Gwen was helping Martha climb onto the upper walkway when Ianto rejoined them. He was glad to see no one was injured or currently under attack, but worried that he could no longer see the glove.
"Owen! Owen, don't move," Jack ordered. Owen stopped struggling against the restraints that had him trapped in the chair in the centre of the medbay. "Everyone spread out."
Ianto took a few steps down, clutching the caman, as the others spread out along the railing. Jack, who was on the opposite staircase, gave Ianto a bemused look, turning his hands up in question at the sight of the stick. Ianto glowered at him when he saw the corner of Jack's mouth quiver with amusement and gripped the stick tighter.
"Where did it go?" Gwen whispered as everyone kept looking for the glove.
Martha pointed. "I think it went under the cabinet," she said softly, still breathing hard.
"Are you all right?" Jack asked her.
"Yeah, I think so."
Jack gave her a relieved nod. "Good," he breathed.
Suddenly, the light tapping of metal on concrete filled the air. Just as suddenly, it stopped. They all strained their ears, and then there it was again - the click, click, click of the glove moving around like an iron-clad Thing from The Addams Family.
"It's there!" Gwen whispered.
There was a long moment of silence, as if the glove had heard Gwen. Everyone was looking around in vain, trying to spot the glove when Martha leant over the railing to look down.
The glove sprang up at Martha, grasping the railing next to her. She screamed and pushed back from the glove which leapt again, finally reaching its goal and clamping down on Martha's face. She screamed and hit the wall behind her, sliding down it as she fought against the glove.
Gwen and Tosh ran to Martha, pulling at the glove.
"Jack!" Tosh yelled, moving aside as Jack dropped to his knees beside Martha.
He pulled at the glove with all his strength as Owen fought his bindings again and Ianto watched helplessly from across the room, listening to Martha scream. He took a few steps down, intending to help Owen free himself from the straps, and then a loud grunt from Jack made him run back up the stairs again, wanting to help his Captain.
With a roar of exertion, Jack finally managed to pry the glove from Martha's face. It struggled against his grip, trying desperately to get away. Ianto gripped the caman again, wishing suddenly Jack had wanted to play strip cricket instead of strip shinty, because it looked like Jack was about to throw the glove right at him. After another struggle, Jack hurled the glove across the medbay where it landed upside down on a tray, fingers waving pathetically like a turtle on its back.
Owen finally managed to escape from the chair, his eyes never leaving the glove. When it righted itself and jumped to the floor again, he stomped on it savagely.
"Gun!" he shouted.
The glove struggled under Owen's foot. It knows, Ianto thought with dawning horror. It understands what we're saying.
"If you destroy it, the connection could be lost!" Tosh yelled desperately to Owen.
Owen stretched his hand out toward Jack, pleading with him. "Jack!"
Jack hesitated.
The glove's struggles became more frantic, nearly bucking Owen off as it tried to break free.
"Now!" Owen shouted.
Jack pulled his Webley from his hip and tossed it to Owen. Ianto had a sudden flashback - a different glove, a different gun, but the same sequence of events. He had thrown the gun to Tosh who had blown away the first resurrection glove in a shower of exploding metal. This time it was Owen who caught the gun, stepped off the glove and fired. Ianto ducked instinctively. This glove fared the same as its mate, disintegrating into tiny shards of metal in a blinding explosion.
There was a general sigh of relief after the glove's destruction. Ianto's eyes shot to Owen, who was still standing over the pile of metallic dust that had been the glove. Jack had told him that Suzie died instantly once the connection to the glove had been severed. The gloves really do work differently then, Ianto thought, Owen is still -
"Oh, my God. Martha?"
Gwen's words pulled Ianto out of his head. He glanced at her and then down at Martha as Gwen slowly knelt next to her.
"Martha?"
Jack dropped to his knees on Martha's other side and lifted her wrinkled and frail hand in his own. Ianto couldn't believe his eyes. Martha had aged sixty years in the space of a second.
"What's happened to her?" Gwen asked quietly.
"It's the glove. It did this to her. Owen, help me with her." When Owen didn't answer, Jack yelled for him. "Owen!"
Owen was still standing in the middle of the medbay. He spread his arms, Jack's gun falling from his trembling fingers. The monitors started beeping frantically and Ianto could see that the energy reading in Owen's body was now at 100%. He watched in horror as Owen slowly turned around, his eyes black pools of darkness once more.
Owen smiled and Ianto's blood ran cold. He opened his mouth and a voice that was not his own spoke through him. "I will walk the Earth and my hunger will know no bounds."
Before anyone could react, Owen began to scream. Black smoke began to escape from his eyes and his mouth as Owen fell to his knees. As the smoke thickened, Owen's screams of pain were dimmed by the sound of deep, maniacal laughter. The black smoke seemed to solidify, lengthening and shaping itself into the form of a man who turned blind eyes and faceless features around the medbay, seeking an escape. It loomed over Jack who was standing in front of the barred window that led to an access shaft.
Ianto shook off the paralysis that gripped him and ran down the stairs, but he wasn't fast enough. The smoke lunged forward and, for a moment, Jack was completely obscured. A scream of pain ripped through the air and then the smoke was gone and Jack was slumped against the wall, dead.
"Oh, my god! Jack!" Gwen screamed. She dropped Martha's hand and hurtled down the stairs, pushing past Ianto in her hurry to get to the Captain.
"What happened?" Tosh asked, moving to support Martha before she fell over. "Did it go into Jack?"
"No." Owen's voice was rough from screaming, but definitely his voice again. He cleared his throat. "No, it went up the shaft. It escaped. God, what have I done? What have I done?"
Ianto stepped forward and gripped Owen's shoulder, cutting off his guilty mumbling. He stared at Jack for a moment telling himself that he had faced worse and survived, then he snapped to attention.
"Tosh, how is Martha?" he called.
"Not well," Tosh said frantically. "She's barely conscious."
Owen turned from the sight of Gwen crying over Jack and looked up at the walkway where Martha and Tosh were huddled.
"Oh, God, oh, no, oh, God, Martha!" Owen tried to run but his legs gave out before he'd taken more than a step. Ianto was dragged down with him and lost precious seconds trying to get to his feet again. "Hospital!" Owen shouted over Gwen's sobs. "You have to get her to the hospital!"
"All right, everyone just stop!" Ianto yelled. He straightened his jacket in the ensuing silence and when he spoke again, his voice was urgent but under control. "Gwen, help Tosh with Martha. Now," he added firmly when she started to protest. "Jack will be fine. Owen, are you injured in some way?"
Owen shook his head, rolling onto his side. "No, just weak. That... thing... it felt like it was... feeding on me as it came through. I think I'll be okay, just gimme a minute," he panted, breathing hard.
"Good," Ianto said crisply. He ran a hand through his hair, thinking. "Okay, okay, get Martha onto the lift. I'll bring Jack. Owen, can you make it?"
Owen nodded and stood carefully and began a slow climb of the stairs whilst Tosh and Gwen gently lifted Martha and moved her to the flat stone of the invisible lift. Ianto pulled Jack to his feet and draped his lover's lifeless arm over his shoulders, wrapping his arm around Jack's waist. He tried not to shudder. Touching Jack when he was dead always shocked Ianto, no matter how many times he did it. He struggled up the stairs behind Owen, dragging Jack along with him. He laid the body on the stone, making sure Jack was secure enough for the ascent. He ran to the nearest workstation and cancelled the lockdown.
"We'll meet you with the SUV," Ianto told Tosh as he engaged the lift. She nodded and steadied herself as the stone began to rise.
"Owen!" Ianto shouted as he crossed the Hub for Jack's coat and the keys for the SUV.
"Coming," Owen yelled back. He appeared at the top of the stairs to the conference room, shirtless and trying to fasten his baggy jeans over the white scrub pants he was wearing. He pulled on his shirt and jacket, leaving them unfastened as he dropped his boots and shoved his feet into them. "What?" he asked at Ianto's exasperated look. "Can't go to the hospital looking like I escaped from the locked ward, now can I?"
"Come on!"
Ianto found the keys and headed for the garage, leaving Owen to hobble along behind him.
TBC...
. This entry was originally posted at http://buttononthetop.dreamwidth.org/111869.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Rating: R
Warnings: None really, just Zombie!Owen ;-)
Spoilers: Season Two thru Dead Man Walking (2x07)
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Torchwood, Doctor Who and all their wonderfulness belong to the Mighty Beeb and He Who Must Not Be Named. All ©'s to Matt Jones for situations and dialogue borrowed from Dead Man Walking. No infringement, only worship intended!
Summary: In which the glove fights back...
Notes: Hey - posted on time again! WOO! You can find all the previous chapters of The Sea After a Storm here. This is a sequel to Vizzini’s Rule and To The Pain. Thanks again and forever to my amazing beta and wonderful friend
thraceadams for all the help and support and beta work; any mistakes are mine!
The Sea After a Storm: Chapter Eighty
Previously on The Sea After a Storm: Owen decides the best way to stop the thing in the darkness from using him is to embalm his body, but the Resurrection Glove has other ideas...
"Lockdown!" Jack ordered over Martha's screams as she struggled with the glove.
Ianto raced up the stairs, running to his workstation and entering the lockdown code into the computer. He paused for a moment to listen for the sound of all the locks engaging and then turned back to the medbay, stopping when something caught his eye. The green-taped handle of Jack's shinty stick - a caman, he called it - was sticking out from under a pile of papers. Thinking it might come in handy to have something he could use to whack the glove from a distance, Ianto grabbed it and rushed back to medbay.
Gwen was helping Martha climb onto the upper walkway when Ianto rejoined them. He was glad to see no one was injured or currently under attack, but worried that he could no longer see the glove.
"Owen! Owen, don't move," Jack ordered. Owen stopped struggling against the restraints that had him trapped in the chair in the centre of the medbay. "Everyone spread out."
Ianto took a few steps down, clutching the caman, as the others spread out along the railing. Jack, who was on the opposite staircase, gave Ianto a bemused look, turning his hands up in question at the sight of the stick. Ianto glowered at him when he saw the corner of Jack's mouth quiver with amusement and gripped the stick tighter.
"Where did it go?" Gwen whispered as everyone kept looking for the glove.
Martha pointed. "I think it went under the cabinet," she said softly, still breathing hard.
"Are you all right?" Jack asked her.
"Yeah, I think so."
Jack gave her a relieved nod. "Good," he breathed.
Suddenly, the light tapping of metal on concrete filled the air. Just as suddenly, it stopped. They all strained their ears, and then there it was again - the click, click, click of the glove moving around like an iron-clad Thing from The Addams Family.
"It's there!" Gwen whispered.
There was a long moment of silence, as if the glove had heard Gwen. Everyone was looking around in vain, trying to spot the glove when Martha leant over the railing to look down.
The glove sprang up at Martha, grasping the railing next to her. She screamed and pushed back from the glove which leapt again, finally reaching its goal and clamping down on Martha's face. She screamed and hit the wall behind her, sliding down it as she fought against the glove.
Gwen and Tosh ran to Martha, pulling at the glove.
"Jack!" Tosh yelled, moving aside as Jack dropped to his knees beside Martha.
He pulled at the glove with all his strength as Owen fought his bindings again and Ianto watched helplessly from across the room, listening to Martha scream. He took a few steps down, intending to help Owen free himself from the straps, and then a loud grunt from Jack made him run back up the stairs again, wanting to help his Captain.
With a roar of exertion, Jack finally managed to pry the glove from Martha's face. It struggled against his grip, trying desperately to get away. Ianto gripped the caman again, wishing suddenly Jack had wanted to play strip cricket instead of strip shinty, because it looked like Jack was about to throw the glove right at him. After another struggle, Jack hurled the glove across the medbay where it landed upside down on a tray, fingers waving pathetically like a turtle on its back.
Owen finally managed to escape from the chair, his eyes never leaving the glove. When it righted itself and jumped to the floor again, he stomped on it savagely.
"Gun!" he shouted.
The glove struggled under Owen's foot. It knows, Ianto thought with dawning horror. It understands what we're saying.
"If you destroy it, the connection could be lost!" Tosh yelled desperately to Owen.
Owen stretched his hand out toward Jack, pleading with him. "Jack!"
Jack hesitated.
The glove's struggles became more frantic, nearly bucking Owen off as it tried to break free.
"Now!" Owen shouted.
Jack pulled his Webley from his hip and tossed it to Owen. Ianto had a sudden flashback - a different glove, a different gun, but the same sequence of events. He had thrown the gun to Tosh who had blown away the first resurrection glove in a shower of exploding metal. This time it was Owen who caught the gun, stepped off the glove and fired. Ianto ducked instinctively. This glove fared the same as its mate, disintegrating into tiny shards of metal in a blinding explosion.
There was a general sigh of relief after the glove's destruction. Ianto's eyes shot to Owen, who was still standing over the pile of metallic dust that had been the glove. Jack had told him that Suzie died instantly once the connection to the glove had been severed. The gloves really do work differently then, Ianto thought, Owen is still -
"Oh, my God. Martha?"
Gwen's words pulled Ianto out of his head. He glanced at her and then down at Martha as Gwen slowly knelt next to her.
"Martha?"
Jack dropped to his knees on Martha's other side and lifted her wrinkled and frail hand in his own. Ianto couldn't believe his eyes. Martha had aged sixty years in the space of a second.
"What's happened to her?" Gwen asked quietly.
"It's the glove. It did this to her. Owen, help me with her." When Owen didn't answer, Jack yelled for him. "Owen!"
Owen was still standing in the middle of the medbay. He spread his arms, Jack's gun falling from his trembling fingers. The monitors started beeping frantically and Ianto could see that the energy reading in Owen's body was now at 100%. He watched in horror as Owen slowly turned around, his eyes black pools of darkness once more.
Owen smiled and Ianto's blood ran cold. He opened his mouth and a voice that was not his own spoke through him. "I will walk the Earth and my hunger will know no bounds."
Before anyone could react, Owen began to scream. Black smoke began to escape from his eyes and his mouth as Owen fell to his knees. As the smoke thickened, Owen's screams of pain were dimmed by the sound of deep, maniacal laughter. The black smoke seemed to solidify, lengthening and shaping itself into the form of a man who turned blind eyes and faceless features around the medbay, seeking an escape. It loomed over Jack who was standing in front of the barred window that led to an access shaft.
Ianto shook off the paralysis that gripped him and ran down the stairs, but he wasn't fast enough. The smoke lunged forward and, for a moment, Jack was completely obscured. A scream of pain ripped through the air and then the smoke was gone and Jack was slumped against the wall, dead.
"Oh, my god! Jack!" Gwen screamed. She dropped Martha's hand and hurtled down the stairs, pushing past Ianto in her hurry to get to the Captain.
"What happened?" Tosh asked, moving to support Martha before she fell over. "Did it go into Jack?"
"No." Owen's voice was rough from screaming, but definitely his voice again. He cleared his throat. "No, it went up the shaft. It escaped. God, what have I done? What have I done?"
Ianto stepped forward and gripped Owen's shoulder, cutting off his guilty mumbling. He stared at Jack for a moment telling himself that he had faced worse and survived, then he snapped to attention.
"Tosh, how is Martha?" he called.
"Not well," Tosh said frantically. "She's barely conscious."
Owen turned from the sight of Gwen crying over Jack and looked up at the walkway where Martha and Tosh were huddled.
"Oh, God, oh, no, oh, God, Martha!" Owen tried to run but his legs gave out before he'd taken more than a step. Ianto was dragged down with him and lost precious seconds trying to get to his feet again. "Hospital!" Owen shouted over Gwen's sobs. "You have to get her to the hospital!"
"All right, everyone just stop!" Ianto yelled. He straightened his jacket in the ensuing silence and when he spoke again, his voice was urgent but under control. "Gwen, help Tosh with Martha. Now," he added firmly when she started to protest. "Jack will be fine. Owen, are you injured in some way?"
Owen shook his head, rolling onto his side. "No, just weak. That... thing... it felt like it was... feeding on me as it came through. I think I'll be okay, just gimme a minute," he panted, breathing hard.
"Good," Ianto said crisply. He ran a hand through his hair, thinking. "Okay, okay, get Martha onto the lift. I'll bring Jack. Owen, can you make it?"
Owen nodded and stood carefully and began a slow climb of the stairs whilst Tosh and Gwen gently lifted Martha and moved her to the flat stone of the invisible lift. Ianto pulled Jack to his feet and draped his lover's lifeless arm over his shoulders, wrapping his arm around Jack's waist. He tried not to shudder. Touching Jack when he was dead always shocked Ianto, no matter how many times he did it. He struggled up the stairs behind Owen, dragging Jack along with him. He laid the body on the stone, making sure Jack was secure enough for the ascent. He ran to the nearest workstation and cancelled the lockdown.
"We'll meet you with the SUV," Ianto told Tosh as he engaged the lift. She nodded and steadied herself as the stone began to rise.
"Owen!" Ianto shouted as he crossed the Hub for Jack's coat and the keys for the SUV.
"Coming," Owen yelled back. He appeared at the top of the stairs to the conference room, shirtless and trying to fasten his baggy jeans over the white scrub pants he was wearing. He pulled on his shirt and jacket, leaving them unfastened as he dropped his boots and shoved his feet into them. "What?" he asked at Ianto's exasperated look. "Can't go to the hospital looking like I escaped from the locked ward, now can I?"
"Come on!"
Ianto found the keys and headed for the garage, leaving Owen to hobble along behind him.
TBC...
. This entry was originally posted at http://buttononthetop.dreamwidth.org/111869.html. Please comment there using OpenID.