Fic: Vizzini's Rule (100/105)
Title: Vizzini's Rule, Chapter 100
Rating: R
Warnings: Language, violence and character death (for the moment, at least)
Spoilers: Season One thru End of Days (1x13)
Disclaimer: Torchwood and all its wonderfulness belong to Russell T. Davies and the Mighty Beeb. Just goofin' around! All ©’s to Catherine Tregenna for references to Captain Jack Harkness and to Chris Chibnall for dialogue and situations borrowed from End of Days - no infringement, only worship intended.
Summary: In which everyone makes really bad decisions…
Notes: Truffle centers are chillin’ in the fridge, it’s just past midnight and I’m SO ready for bed. But first? A chapter. The hundredth chapter! I'd like to say thanks again to my fatanbulous beta and wonderful friend thrace_adams. She's stuck with this mess for 100 chapters! *hugs* We’re so close to the end I can taste it - now if I could just find enough time to write it!! ;) Enjoy!
Previous Chapters
Vizzini's Rule: Chapter One Hundred
“What - ” Ianto began but Tosh interrupted him.
“Quick! Get the CCTV back on-line,” Tosh ordered. “I’m running a diagnostic to see if we can figure out what happened.”
“Right!”
It took Ianto a long, painful minute to the get the feed from the CCTV in the vault to display. He activated the camera on the first level of cells and held his breath, wanting to look away but needing to know what had happened.
“Oh… God…” he said hollowly.
“Did you - oh my God,” Tosh said as she hurried to his side. “How…” She swallowed hard. “No one could have gotten in here, no one! How could this happen?”
“How did Bilis know?” Ianto asked. “How could he know?”
“But this isn’t what he saw. She said that she was in her flat, that’s why she brought him here, so he would be…”
“Safe.” Ianto spat out the word.
Unable to speak, Tosh simply nodded. She reached out and grabbed Ianto’s hand. For a moment they stood there and watched as Gwen grieved over Rhys while Jack crouched next to her, unable to help.
“We have to do something,” Tosh whispered. “We have to…”
Open the rift, open the rift, open the rift. The words seemed to pound against the inside of Ianto’s skull, trying to beat their way out. He realized his lips were moving, a silent echo of Lisa’s voice in his head. He had to bite the inside of his lower lip until it bled before he could stop mouthing those three words. He glanced at Tosh to see if she’d noticed.
Her lips were moving too.
Ianto jumped up from his chair and backed away from Tosh. His sudden movement startled her out of their shared trance.
“What? Oh God, Ianto, look.”
He looked at the screen where she was pointing. Jack was standing, trying to get Gwen to let go of Rhys’s body. They watched as he finally managed to pull Gwen away and then bent to cover him with a tarp that was in the corner of the room. He tucked it gently around the gruesome mess of Rhys’s shirt and then stooped to lift him into his arms. He staggered for a moment under the weight of the heavier man, but regained his balance and headed for the door. Gwen walked in front of him this time, never dropping Rhys’s hand.
When they appeared at the top of the stairs, Ianto tried to take Rhys from Jack or at least help carry him, but Jack shook his head and continued to the med bay. Gwen didn’t speak or look at anyone but Rhys as Jack laid him down on the cot and arranged his body. Other than the blood soaked shirt, he might have been sleeping. Jack pushed a stool under Gwen and made her sit. Then he began to wash the blood off her hands. Tosh and Ianto leaned against the wall of the med bay, half in the room and half out, ready to leave if Gwen needed to be alone with the body.
“I’ll have to tell his family,” Gwen said, her quiet voice making them all jump a little.
“We’ll deal with it,” Ianto promised, glad he could help in some small way.
“The way you dealt with that porter the first time I met you?”
Ianto cringed. That’s not what I meant, he wanted to say but Gwen continued.
“No, you won’t deal with him, Ianto.”
“Gwen, I’m so sorry,” Tosh said sympathetically, but Gwen just laughed.
“You never even met him,” she accused quietly.
Tosh sagged back against the wall. Ianto wanted to take her hand but then Gwen spoke again.
“This is what happens here,” she said in that same deadened voice. “We all end up alone. Not me. No way.” She looked up at Jack who moved to the wall as well. “You bring him back.”
“No,” Jack said simply.
“The resurrection gauntlet -”
“Was destroyed,” Ianto reminded her.
“We’ve got to have something else.”
“I said no.” Jack’s tone brooked no argument but it had no effect on Gwen.
“No,” she said desperately, grasping at straws. “There’s… something wrong with time, so uh… we can go back to the moment, to the very moment -”
Jack interrupted. “Gwen…”
“Well, there’s got to be something that you can do otherwise what’s the fucking point of you?” Gwen yelled and hurled herself at Jack, hitting and clawing at him. “You, you bring him back! You bring him back! Bring him to me! You bring him back! Do you understand me, Jack fucking Harkness? Do you?” Her rage was spent as quickly as it flared and she fell against Jack, sobbing as he held her.
“I’m so sorry,” he said again and again.
Over Gwen’s wails of sorrow, Ianto heard Lisa’s voice again. Thousands, Ianto, thousands just like Rhys, thousands will die, unless you open the rift. Ianto dropped his head and clenched his hands in his pockets, feeling more than helpless.
“Oh shit.”
Ianto looked up the stairs to see Owen standing there. He glanced quickly at Tosh who’s whole face lit up, and then over at Jack who was rocking Gwen with his eyes closed, unaware of Owen’s presence.
“What happened?” Owen asked as he hurried down the stairs. He was so focused on Gwen that he didn’t even acknowledge Tosh’s bright welcome. Ianto could feel the pain radiating from Tosh as Owen grabbed Gwen, trying to pull her away from Jack. “Are you all right? You all right?”
But Gwen pushed him away, screaming “Don’t touch me!” She stood, caught between Owen and Jack for a tense moment and then returned to Rhys’s side.
“How many other people have got to suffer?” Owen asked quietly.
Jack ignored him, staring at Rhys and Gwen. Ianto could tell from the set of his jaw that he was trying desperately to keep himself under control, to keep from breaking down in front of them.
Owen spoke again, and this time there was no fear and no guilt in his voice, only a calm assurance. “I’m gonna fix this,” he said. “I’m opening the rift.”
He’s right. He’s right and Jack’s wrong, we have to fix this, Ianto thought as he stared at Owen. We have to open the rift. He looked back at Jack one last time, hesitating for a second when Jack’s eyes met his. But he had made up his mind and, tearing his gaze away from his Captain, Ianto followed Owen up the stairs.
“Make sure you stop him,” Jack ordered, always so confident Ianto would obey without question.
Ianto stopped. He steeled his resolve and turned to face Jack. He spoke, forcing the word out in a voice thick with unshed tears.
“No.”
The combination of surprise, hurt, and betrayal in Jack’s eyes almost broke him, but he made himself turn away and continue up the stairs.
He walked up to Owen who glanced over his shoulder and then went back to typing. “Gonna shoot me again, tea boy? Because you better aim for my heart this time.”
“I’m here to help you,” Ianto said quietly.
Owen stopped typing for a moment and then turned to really look at Ianto. “All right then, you know the drill.”
“No. That won’t do it. What you did last time was like opening a window. We have to open it all the way.”
“I…” Owen faltered. “I don’t know how to do that.”
Ianto smiled grimly. “Good job I’ve done my research then. Enter Emergency Protocol One.”
Owen began to type.
Suddenly Gwen and Tosh were there as well. Gwen pushed Owen aside and took over, Ianto talking her through the steps.
“Get away from the computer, Gwen.”
Ianto looked over at Jack who had followed as well, not sure if he should stay and help Gwen or keep Jack away from the computer. Owen stepped in, putting himself between Jack and the team.
“This is a trap,” Jack said desperately. “All these cracks around the world? They’re diversions. This is what Bilis wants.”
“What are you afraid of, Jack?” Owen asked.
Ianto heard Gwen stop typing and dragged his eyes away from Jack. Password, God I hope Jack didn’t change it without my help, he thought. He took a deep breath. “Rhea Silva.”
It worked.
Gwen began to complete the next screen, until Jack’s voice interrupted them again.
“I said move!” he shouted.
Ianto looked up to see Jack aiming his Webley at the back of Gwen’s head. Everyone stopped and turned slowly around.
“What the hell are you doing?” Tosh asked.
“Final warning,” Jack replied.
Ianto froze, wondering if Jack would really pull the trigger.
Gwen apparently didn’t think so and walked into the gun, unflinching. “Come on, Jack,” she said quietly, her tone of voice suggesting that she knew he was bluffing.
Wrong move, Ianto thought.
“You’re a united front now?” Jack said scathingly, not taking his eyes off of Gwen as he reduced each of them to their weakest moments. “Toshiko, the poor girl who’ll screw any passing alien that gives her a pendant. Owen, so strong he gets into a cage with a weevil, desperate to be mauled. Ianto, hiding his cyber-girlfriend in the basement.” Jack tore his gaze from Gwen and stared at Ianto, tears starting to form in his eyes as he said desperately, “Your three comrades here pumped bullets into her, remember?”
Ianto knew what Jack was trying to do, knew he was trying to divide them, to break them. Not this time, Captain, he thought. There’s too much at stake, too many lives.
“I’ve got to get Rhys back,” Gwen whimpered.
Jack lowered his gun and regarded her with scorn. “Yeah, ‘cause you’re so in love with Rhys that you spend half your time in Owen’s bed.”
Gwen’s right hook took Jack completely by surprise.
“Fuck you!” she screamed as he fell to the ground.
Owen scrambled for Jack’s Webley, pointing it at Jack as Gwen returned to the computer. “We’re relieving you of your command, Captain,” Owen yelled. “We’re opening that rift and getting back what we lost!”
Shit, too far, too far, Ianto thought. We don’t have to do it like this! He shifted uncomfortably, torn between wanting to help Gwen, wanting to get the gun away from Owen, and wanting to go to Jack.
Jack started to get up and Owen cocked the gun. “Stay down!” he ordered.
“You wanna be in charge, Owen?” Jack sneered. “You’ve got to have significantly bigger balls.”
He stood.
Owen fired.
Ianto’s heart stopped when he heard the gun go off. He saw Jack fall. Jack. He watched helplessly as Owen advanced and shot Jack twice more. Two to the chest, one to the head, a clean kill, he thought hysterically. Jack. God, Jack!
“I’m sick of people doubting me,” Owen cried. He still had his finger on the trigger when Ianto fell to his knees by Jack’s body, but Ianto didn’t care if Owen shot him too.
“What have you done?” Ianto reached out a hand to Jack and then pulled it back to cover his mouth, to hold back the sobs pressing at the back of his throat.
Oh my God, what have we done?
TBC in Chapter One Hundred and One
Rating: R
Warnings: Language, violence and character death (for the moment, at least)
Spoilers: Season One thru End of Days (1x13)
Disclaimer: Torchwood and all its wonderfulness belong to Russell T. Davies and the Mighty Beeb. Just goofin' around! All ©’s to Catherine Tregenna for references to Captain Jack Harkness and to Chris Chibnall for dialogue and situations borrowed from End of Days - no infringement, only worship intended.
Summary: In which everyone makes really bad decisions…
Notes: Truffle centers are chillin’ in the fridge, it’s just past midnight and I’m SO ready for bed. But first? A chapter. The hundredth chapter! I'd like to say thanks again to my fatanbulous beta and wonderful friend thrace_adams. She's stuck with this mess for 100 chapters! *hugs* We’re so close to the end I can taste it - now if I could just find enough time to write it!! ;) Enjoy!
Previous Chapters
Vizzini's Rule: Chapter One Hundred
“What - ” Ianto began but Tosh interrupted him.
“Quick! Get the CCTV back on-line,” Tosh ordered. “I’m running a diagnostic to see if we can figure out what happened.”
“Right!”
It took Ianto a long, painful minute to the get the feed from the CCTV in the vault to display. He activated the camera on the first level of cells and held his breath, wanting to look away but needing to know what had happened.
“Oh… God…” he said hollowly.
“Did you - oh my God,” Tosh said as she hurried to his side. “How…” She swallowed hard. “No one could have gotten in here, no one! How could this happen?”
“How did Bilis know?” Ianto asked. “How could he know?”
“But this isn’t what he saw. She said that she was in her flat, that’s why she brought him here, so he would be…”
“Safe.” Ianto spat out the word.
Unable to speak, Tosh simply nodded. She reached out and grabbed Ianto’s hand. For a moment they stood there and watched as Gwen grieved over Rhys while Jack crouched next to her, unable to help.
“We have to do something,” Tosh whispered. “We have to…”
Open the rift, open the rift, open the rift. The words seemed to pound against the inside of Ianto’s skull, trying to beat their way out. He realized his lips were moving, a silent echo of Lisa’s voice in his head. He had to bite the inside of his lower lip until it bled before he could stop mouthing those three words. He glanced at Tosh to see if she’d noticed.
Her lips were moving too.
Ianto jumped up from his chair and backed away from Tosh. His sudden movement startled her out of their shared trance.
“What? Oh God, Ianto, look.”
He looked at the screen where she was pointing. Jack was standing, trying to get Gwen to let go of Rhys’s body. They watched as he finally managed to pull Gwen away and then bent to cover him with a tarp that was in the corner of the room. He tucked it gently around the gruesome mess of Rhys’s shirt and then stooped to lift him into his arms. He staggered for a moment under the weight of the heavier man, but regained his balance and headed for the door. Gwen walked in front of him this time, never dropping Rhys’s hand.
When they appeared at the top of the stairs, Ianto tried to take Rhys from Jack or at least help carry him, but Jack shook his head and continued to the med bay. Gwen didn’t speak or look at anyone but Rhys as Jack laid him down on the cot and arranged his body. Other than the blood soaked shirt, he might have been sleeping. Jack pushed a stool under Gwen and made her sit. Then he began to wash the blood off her hands. Tosh and Ianto leaned against the wall of the med bay, half in the room and half out, ready to leave if Gwen needed to be alone with the body.
“I’ll have to tell his family,” Gwen said, her quiet voice making them all jump a little.
“We’ll deal with it,” Ianto promised, glad he could help in some small way.
“The way you dealt with that porter the first time I met you?”
Ianto cringed. That’s not what I meant, he wanted to say but Gwen continued.
“No, you won’t deal with him, Ianto.”
“Gwen, I’m so sorry,” Tosh said sympathetically, but Gwen just laughed.
“You never even met him,” she accused quietly.
Tosh sagged back against the wall. Ianto wanted to take her hand but then Gwen spoke again.
“This is what happens here,” she said in that same deadened voice. “We all end up alone. Not me. No way.” She looked up at Jack who moved to the wall as well. “You bring him back.”
“No,” Jack said simply.
“The resurrection gauntlet -”
“Was destroyed,” Ianto reminded her.
“We’ve got to have something else.”
“I said no.” Jack’s tone brooked no argument but it had no effect on Gwen.
“No,” she said desperately, grasping at straws. “There’s… something wrong with time, so uh… we can go back to the moment, to the very moment -”
Jack interrupted. “Gwen…”
“Well, there’s got to be something that you can do otherwise what’s the fucking point of you?” Gwen yelled and hurled herself at Jack, hitting and clawing at him. “You, you bring him back! You bring him back! Bring him to me! You bring him back! Do you understand me, Jack fucking Harkness? Do you?” Her rage was spent as quickly as it flared and she fell against Jack, sobbing as he held her.
“I’m so sorry,” he said again and again.
Over Gwen’s wails of sorrow, Ianto heard Lisa’s voice again. Thousands, Ianto, thousands just like Rhys, thousands will die, unless you open the rift. Ianto dropped his head and clenched his hands in his pockets, feeling more than helpless.
“Oh shit.”
Ianto looked up the stairs to see Owen standing there. He glanced quickly at Tosh who’s whole face lit up, and then over at Jack who was rocking Gwen with his eyes closed, unaware of Owen’s presence.
“What happened?” Owen asked as he hurried down the stairs. He was so focused on Gwen that he didn’t even acknowledge Tosh’s bright welcome. Ianto could feel the pain radiating from Tosh as Owen grabbed Gwen, trying to pull her away from Jack. “Are you all right? You all right?”
But Gwen pushed him away, screaming “Don’t touch me!” She stood, caught between Owen and Jack for a tense moment and then returned to Rhys’s side.
“How many other people have got to suffer?” Owen asked quietly.
Jack ignored him, staring at Rhys and Gwen. Ianto could tell from the set of his jaw that he was trying desperately to keep himself under control, to keep from breaking down in front of them.
Owen spoke again, and this time there was no fear and no guilt in his voice, only a calm assurance. “I’m gonna fix this,” he said. “I’m opening the rift.”
He’s right. He’s right and Jack’s wrong, we have to fix this, Ianto thought as he stared at Owen. We have to open the rift. He looked back at Jack one last time, hesitating for a second when Jack’s eyes met his. But he had made up his mind and, tearing his gaze away from his Captain, Ianto followed Owen up the stairs.
“Make sure you stop him,” Jack ordered, always so confident Ianto would obey without question.
Ianto stopped. He steeled his resolve and turned to face Jack. He spoke, forcing the word out in a voice thick with unshed tears.
“No.”
The combination of surprise, hurt, and betrayal in Jack’s eyes almost broke him, but he made himself turn away and continue up the stairs.
He walked up to Owen who glanced over his shoulder and then went back to typing. “Gonna shoot me again, tea boy? Because you better aim for my heart this time.”
“I’m here to help you,” Ianto said quietly.
Owen stopped typing for a moment and then turned to really look at Ianto. “All right then, you know the drill.”
“No. That won’t do it. What you did last time was like opening a window. We have to open it all the way.”
“I…” Owen faltered. “I don’t know how to do that.”
Ianto smiled grimly. “Good job I’ve done my research then. Enter Emergency Protocol One.”
Owen began to type.
Suddenly Gwen and Tosh were there as well. Gwen pushed Owen aside and took over, Ianto talking her through the steps.
“Get away from the computer, Gwen.”
Ianto looked over at Jack who had followed as well, not sure if he should stay and help Gwen or keep Jack away from the computer. Owen stepped in, putting himself between Jack and the team.
“This is a trap,” Jack said desperately. “All these cracks around the world? They’re diversions. This is what Bilis wants.”
“What are you afraid of, Jack?” Owen asked.
Ianto heard Gwen stop typing and dragged his eyes away from Jack. Password, God I hope Jack didn’t change it without my help, he thought. He took a deep breath. “Rhea Silva.”
It worked.
Gwen began to complete the next screen, until Jack’s voice interrupted them again.
“I said move!” he shouted.
Ianto looked up to see Jack aiming his Webley at the back of Gwen’s head. Everyone stopped and turned slowly around.
“What the hell are you doing?” Tosh asked.
“Final warning,” Jack replied.
Ianto froze, wondering if Jack would really pull the trigger.
Gwen apparently didn’t think so and walked into the gun, unflinching. “Come on, Jack,” she said quietly, her tone of voice suggesting that she knew he was bluffing.
Wrong move, Ianto thought.
“You’re a united front now?” Jack said scathingly, not taking his eyes off of Gwen as he reduced each of them to their weakest moments. “Toshiko, the poor girl who’ll screw any passing alien that gives her a pendant. Owen, so strong he gets into a cage with a weevil, desperate to be mauled. Ianto, hiding his cyber-girlfriend in the basement.” Jack tore his gaze from Gwen and stared at Ianto, tears starting to form in his eyes as he said desperately, “Your three comrades here pumped bullets into her, remember?”
Ianto knew what Jack was trying to do, knew he was trying to divide them, to break them. Not this time, Captain, he thought. There’s too much at stake, too many lives.
“I’ve got to get Rhys back,” Gwen whimpered.
Jack lowered his gun and regarded her with scorn. “Yeah, ‘cause you’re so in love with Rhys that you spend half your time in Owen’s bed.”
Gwen’s right hook took Jack completely by surprise.
“Fuck you!” she screamed as he fell to the ground.
Owen scrambled for Jack’s Webley, pointing it at Jack as Gwen returned to the computer. “We’re relieving you of your command, Captain,” Owen yelled. “We’re opening that rift and getting back what we lost!”
Shit, too far, too far, Ianto thought. We don’t have to do it like this! He shifted uncomfortably, torn between wanting to help Gwen, wanting to get the gun away from Owen, and wanting to go to Jack.
Jack started to get up and Owen cocked the gun. “Stay down!” he ordered.
“You wanna be in charge, Owen?” Jack sneered. “You’ve got to have significantly bigger balls.”
He stood.
Owen fired.
Ianto’s heart stopped when he heard the gun go off. He saw Jack fall. Jack. He watched helplessly as Owen advanced and shot Jack twice more. Two to the chest, one to the head, a clean kill, he thought hysterically. Jack. God, Jack!
“I’m sick of people doubting me,” Owen cried. He still had his finger on the trigger when Ianto fell to his knees by Jack’s body, but Ianto didn’t care if Owen shot him too.
“What have you done?” Ianto reached out a hand to Jack and then pulled it back to cover his mouth, to hold back the sobs pressing at the back of his throat.
Oh my God, what have we done?
TBC in Chapter One Hundred and One