Those Who Do Not Remember the Past
Title: Those Who Do Not Remember the Past
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Torchwood, Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica (no, really.)
Warnings: Post-Children of Earth, Multiple Character Deaths
Notes: Another one for the antigwenallies Crossover Challenge. A special nod to vipersweb who is busting her backside studying.
Jack closed his eyes as the transport beam locked on him and began the matter transfer. That way, his last view of Earth wasn't Gwen Cooper looking at him dejected for not staying to fulfill her selfish needs. He hated transport beams, especially primitive ones like this that didn't dematerialize the passenger. He let the pain of transport physically join the mental misery of the past six months, but it would be short lived as the beam should deliver him to the vessel in about two minutes. The sudden completion of the transport and his knees making impact with steel plating jarred Jack back into the moment as he looked around and did not recognize the glowing white panels or the flashing red dot patterns on the walls.
"Where the hell am I?" Jack muttered. He was beyond tired and the last thing he needed was to be in the wrong place. "Of course a ship has to cross my matter stream because not enough has gone wrong." Jack looked around, "So, going to space me or what? Maybe you'd like to kick me a bit first?" His voice broke as he yelled at the walls around him, but the scrolling red glyphs remained unchanged. He checked his vortex manipulator, but only a small percentage of its technology continued to work. The ship design was unknown, but for all of the cleanliness the ship itself was ancient. "Hundred and fifty thousand years? Come on!" Jack slapped the vortex manipulator and sighed in disgust, "Okay, you've had your fun, now who the hell are you?" Jack jumped when the wall panels in front of him lit up and then slid open, revealing hallways with more white panels.
With nothing to lose, Jack wandered into the hallway and saw nothing but more of the same until the white wall panels began flashing the red graphics in a flowing pattern, leading in a specific direction. "Great, on board GPS. I'll just go this way, shall I?" The pattern lead him down hallways that were interchangeable until another wall lit up and slid open. "What now?"
The room was dark except for a single panel covered with the flowing red glyphs and what looked like a bathtub in the middle of the room that was lit from within. "So apparently I need to freshen up before I meet my hosts? Whatever." Jack wandered into the room and headed for the tub then stumbled and fell against it looking in, "No."
"Poor Daniel. He was such a gentle soul." Ellen continued to cry as she ran her fingers through his short hair, the body growing cold under her fingers.
Galen and Sam were studying the genetic data with growing concern as Saul shook his head after returning from the maturation chamber. Sam looked over to Ellen, holding the now dead number seven that they'd all grown so quickly to love as Daniel, then back to where Tory and John were arguing in hushed tones. "This wasn't an accident."
Saul gave him a warning glance, then sat down beside his wife and their lost child, "The matrix destabilized, I'm sorry Ellen, but he's gone. Seven is a failure."
Ellen pulled away from Saul's touch and gave Daniel a last hug before lowering his body to the floor. She stood up and her gaze was cold, "He was never a failure and he's not lost."
It was dark, darker than he had ever experienced. Even in the deepest, darkest parts of the Hub, his eyes could still make out some shapes; but this was different. This was nothing. And as dark as it had been, suddenly there was light everywhere and memories, he remembered who he was, where he had been. He remembered his last words, last words both times. Both times? He remembers his mother's blond hair falling on his face as she held him and cried while his internal organs shutdown and the download began. But then there's a man with dark hair, but eyes just like mother's crying as a virus runs rampant through him. The events blur as his brain tries to slot the memories into proper order, but he hears both voices call his name, and it's not the same.
Jack fell back on his arse as the man in the gel-filled tub gasped into life. The man's hands scrabbled for purchase on the sides of the vessel as he continued to pull in gaping lungfuls of air and looked around wildly. "Where? Where am I?" The decidedly Welsh accent floated around the sterile room as machinery hummed quietly. Stifled crying caught his attention and he looked around the empty room and his eyes fell on the form, sprawled on the floor crying. "Jack?" He grabbed at the sides of the vessel and tried to pull himself out, but the gel suspension was too slick and he fell back into the pool with an undignified thud. Once he had some semblance of balance, he looked back to the prone man on the floor, "Jack? I could really use some help getting out of this, whatever it is."
Jack looked at the man in the tub again, the gel dripped from him, but the pale skin was so familiar as was the dark hair covering it. Jack pressed himself up and walked carefully to the vessel and reached out. The skin tingled with electricity, but was warm just as he remembered. The blue eyes studied him with concern and Jack let his hand rest on the man's cheek, earning a familiar smile. Jack didn't understand, but at the moment he didn't care.
"Ianto."
The ugly creature known as the 456 looked almost comical when not hiding in a cloud of toxic gasses. The multiple legs barely supported its weight in Earth gravity while the mouths, on their tall necks, bobbed around like demented flowers. The child, or rather the onboard drug source, was held securely to its side with tentacles and a specialized sucker kept the parasite alive. They were little more than evolved angler fish on their own world, but on Earth they had hoped to secure plenty of drug sources, like the addicts they were.
But the creature was cowering slightly at the moment, mouths retracted and the parasite buried as far into its body as possible while it hid behind the formerly living body of Rhys Williams that it now animated with several tentacles begging forgiveness from the boss who had planned the heist.
"We're sorry mistress. The humans hurt us, the sounds hurt us." Rhys Williams' voice came out flat and unmodulated, which was unsurprising as the creature was merely making use of his vocal chords to communicate. "Can we still have the gifts?" The last statement was almost hopeful, like an addict begging for another hit.
Gwen Cooper turned around, her eyes furious and her words spat in anger, "Gifts? Why should I let you worthless scum have gifts now?" She strode past the animated corpse and glared at the multiple eyes of the creature, it fearfully pulled as many as possible down into its bulbous body, "You only get what you want if I get what I want." She turned away and left the creature and the body of Rhys Williams, "I wanted Jack Harkness- the man who can't die!" She stormed out of the empty warehouse, leaving the creature cowering behind. After several minutes, the creature allowed its eyes to begin searching and discovering that there was no one around, it dropped the corpse and slowly began eating the carrion. After all, they were bottom feeding scavengers on their home world and this body hadn't been dead very long.
Jack continued to run a hand along Ianto's arm, still not believing that he was really there. In his long life, Jack had witnessed many things that barely made sense; but a living Ianto Jones in a spaceship, wrapped in a fluffy white bathrobe when Jack himself had witnessed the cremation of his body not five months earlier had quickly moved to the top position on the list. "So, who- or what- are you?" Jack's hand stopped roaming as it reached Ianto's wrist and then a second, warm hand was clasped over top of it.
"I'm- I'm not sure?" Ianto's answered haltingly, "I remember us on floor thirteen, I remember shooting at the creature and," he faltered. "Oh god, Jack- I died!" Ianto's eyes grew wide and he was hyperventilating, but Jack pulled him close, letting Ianto's head rest against his chest. As Ianto slowly regained control, letting Jack's heartbeat steady his own he began to muse. "I'm Ianto Jones. I was born in Cardiff. My mam ran out on us when I was ten, my Dad was a clerk at Debenhams. I have an older sister and she has two kids and is married to a fool." He sat back up and looked into Jack's eyes, "I remember all of it. I lived that life, oh god I remember Lisa and Tosh and Owen! Jack- what the hell am I?" Jack tried to pulled the panicking man back against him, but Ianto pushed away, standing up next to the vessel he'd awakened in. "Did you bring me back? Oh god, I'm not like Owen was am I?" He quickly pressed his fingers to his throat, feeling for a pulse and found one. "Where are we?"
Jack rose calmly, desperate to hold Ianto, but understanding that if he moved too quickly he might dart. "I don't know. It's a ship of some sort that intercepted my transport beam. I found you in that vat and then you," Jack searched for the right word, "woke up?"
Ianto looked at the vat with concern, but a tiny glimmer of recognition floated in the back of his mind. Without thinking, he let a hand drop into the gelled fluid and his eyes grew wide as the room became brighter. Jack moved to his side quickly and they both watched in amazement as the figure of a woman; not young, but still beautiful formed across from the vessel. "Mother?"
Lois followed a few steps behind Gwen as they exited number ten. They'd delivered their ultimatum to the acting prime minister after receiving assurances from Her Majesty that Torchwood would retain its place within her administration. Lois had never met a royal up close and had been suitably cowered at the prospect, but Gwen apparently feared nothing and in reflection, she really had nothing left to fear. In half a year she'd gone from being a member of Torchwood to the head of the organization after the departure of the former head, Captain Jack Harkness. She'd also outlived all of her team- not just the young man in the suit that she'd witnessed, but a medic and computer specialist as well. To top it off, her husband had only recently died in a tragic accident and the grief had caused her to miscarry. Lois hadn't asked about the miscarriage or how Gwen had coped, but this harder, more focused person she followed was obviously the result.
They climbed into the new Torchwood SUV, and Gwen didn't even look as she pulled into oncoming traffic. They were on their way to their final stop, UNIT headquarters, where they'd be putting the screws to the officers who'd been caught collaborating. Torchwood would have Martha Jones, and more importantly, all information and access to the mysterious alien known as the Doctor.
Lois peered out the edge of her eyes at Gwen and wondered if she'd ever be hard enough to do what Gwen was.
Jack looked at the hologram and back at Ianto, "That's not your mother. She looks nothing like the photo in your file." Jack turned back to the hologram, which smiled in the direction of Ianto before speaking.
"Hello Daniel. I'm so glad you've come back to us." She smiled, "Of course, you probably aren't called Daniel now, and you most likely have no idea who I am, but you will- in time."
Saul and Galen looked on in confusion as Ellen pulled hairs from her own head and then from both of them. They watched as she placed the hairs in a pool of biogel and stepped back as the pool sealed over and a timer started. "There. He'll be ready when the time comes."
Galen frowned at the display, "It won't be him Ellen, it will just be a meat puppet without a download."
Ellen shook her head, "He'll be ready when the download happens. I checked Hera's RNA, the inheritance worked." She smiled at Saul, "Daniel will come back when he's needed- and his body will be waiting."
She kissed her fingers and let them rest on the vessel's protective shell for a moment before turning and leaving the chamber. With little choice, Galen and Saul followed. Ellen's voice carried down the hallway, "The centurions will guard him and bring him back when the time is right."
The hologram smiled fondly, "You're wondering what happened to you, how you ended up here. You probably remember dying, but don't let that scare you too much. Try to let the pain fade, but remember the lessons learned." She stepped forward and a display appeared above the vessel, "You are the ultimate result of the Cylon race. An engineered life form with the ability to transfer your consciousness to new bodies as your old body dies of natural or unnatural causes. We five were the only survivors of our world, which was destroyed in a nuclear holocaust and we traveled back to our origins in hopes of stopping a repeat of the same mistakes." She turned to the display, "Unfortunately, we were too late. The humans of the colonies had forgotten the past and repeated the same mistake, recreating artificial intelligence and then letting it become resentful. By the time we arrived, the new Cylons were crushing the human colonies in battle. We five stepped in and stopped the war by offering these new Cylons organic life like ourselves and the ability to download their consciousness into new bodies." She paused, "We stopped the war, but there was a price."
Suddenly, seven faces appeared on the display, "These are the seven organic models we developed. Each was to perform a specific function within the new Cylon culture. The first, we called John after my father and we nurtured him. We taught him all about our past and he helped us as we created each of the following models, until the seventh." She looked wistfully in Ianto's direction, "Seven was special. He was the child Saul and I never had and I loved him so very much. We called him Daniel, the name I always wanted to give a son, and we encoded much more into his DNA than any of the others." Daniel appeared on the screen, and both Jack and Ianto gasped when he looked exactly like Ianto.
Ellen sighed, "John was jealous. He hated that I loved Daniel best, so he used the knowledge we'd given him to poison Daniel and corrupt the seed material beyond recovery." Tears could be seen falling from her eyes, "You died in terrible agony and I held you through to the very end." She stopped and looked away as she wiped tears from her eyes before turning back, "But John wasn't as clever as he thought. He didn't understand everything so he couldn't possibly comprehend what we did while creating the eight."
Galen kept watch while Sam and Ellen performed the final manipulations to the mitochondrial DNA for the number eight. The changes were subtle and would hold up to any of the scans they'd taught John. As they stepped back and watched the new cells divide, Sam looked at Ellen, "You do understand how long this will take, don't you? And there's still no guarantee that the eights will succeed where the threes and sixes have failed."
Ellen focused her attention on the replicating batteries of creation and smiled, "Only one eight need succeed and the wheels will be set in motion." She looked into Sam's eyes, "Daniel will be there when he's needed."
Martha looked around the dank cell she'd been locked in. She'd heard about these undocumented UNIT prisons and the stories Toshiko Sato told about her time in one, but Martha never expected to find herself in this position. When she and Tom had returned from their honeymoon on the small island, she couldn't believe the stories that were told. They'd had no electricity, and more importantly, no children around to have any idea what had happened in those fateful five days. But on return, she'd seen the broken form of Jack Harkness and stood silently beside him as the lifeless body of Ianto Jones was transferred to the crematorium and waited until all the remained was ashes. She'd not seen Jack since then, and was horrified to hear of the war trials being held naming several British government officials and military officers from the United States and UNIT. She'd witnessed the executions, but she still didn't understand why she was in this cell.
The door to her cell was thrown open and a person stood back lit in the space. As her eyes adjusted, Martha finally recognized Gwen Cooper and relaxed slightly, "Gwen? Thank goodness you're here! I..." Martha didn't finish her thought as Gwen stepped back and two guards entered the cell, dragging Martha between them while Gwen watched in stony silence. Martha looked around frantically as she was dragged down a hallway and unceremoniously dumped into a chair, then manacled at the ankles to the chair. After a moment's confusion, Martha watched as the guards left and Gwen dropped into the chair across from her and pushed a mobile phone across the table.
"Call him." Gwen's voice was cold.
Martha looked at the phone and then at Gwen with confusion written on her face, "Who? I can't reach Jack. If anyone could it would be you. Gwen, what's going on? Can you help get me out of here?"
Gwen said nothing, only stared blankly at her, "Call the Doctor, make him come here now and I'll arrange for your release."
Martha frowned, "Why do you need the Doctor? If there's something wrong, maybe I can help? Come on Gwen, talk to me." She pushed her hands across the table, but Gwen leaned back in her chair so that they wouldn't make contact. "Gwen?"
"The only thing I need from you is a phone call bringing the Doctor here. To Torchwood- to me. If you are unwilling or unable to do that, then I have no use for you." Gwen waved to the video camera and the security guards returned, standing to each side of Martha. "And they can escort you back to your permanent residence."
Martha picked up the mobile and stared at it, then looked again at Gwen Cooper, who displayed no emotion. She flipped the clam shell open and began dialing.
The Ellen hologram smiled, "When the eight succeeded in reproducing, I knew you'd be back. Sam's calculations estimated it would take about six thousand generations for your DNA to reconstitute so you could be born amongst the humans, and by that time this module will have a replacement body available for download when needed." She ran a virtual hand over the tank's surface, "The nutrient bath continually renews the construct until needed, and the centurions promised that they would return this ship to Earth once it was ready. I imagine the humans have developed at least some modicum of space technology at this point, so it's likely the base star is probably orbiting one of the nearby planets." She looked back up at Ianto, "This is your heritage Daniel, all of the knowledge of the Cyclon race along with all Colonial archives are contained within this ship's systems. All you need do to access them is place your hand in any of the information pools throughout the ship." She smiled again, "You are our crowning achievement, Daniel. Make us proud." Ellen Tigh reached her hand out, and Ianto reached as well- real and photonic touching above the white pool because she faded away.
Jack reached for Ianto's hand as he lowered it and was about to speak when the lighting shifted to red and another hologram formed. This man, in an obvious military uniform and eye patch frowned and crossed his arms. "So now that Ellen's given you all of the hearts and flowers, it's time for the real business at hand seven. That world of yours is in frakkin' trouble and you have to fix it. Daniel, John's alive down there and it's time to box him."
"No. We will not develop that technology." Galen turned and walked away from John and Tory and pushed passed Ellen and Saul as he went.
Saul glared at John, "What did you do to piss him off this time?"
"We were only discussing an alternate download process for terminal emergencies. It's not as if I was suggesting it." John frowned and looked back at Tory, "You explain it, I'm going to check on the maturation chambers." John stepped away and headed down a hallway, leaving Tory to suffer Saul's ire.
"Well?"
"I've developed a theory that would allow direct download of one of our consciousnesses into any suitable organic body. Once the emergency download was completed, extraction could be performed once you returned to a resurrection station." Tory believed her idea had merit, and John was very interested- so interested that he'd already started initial testing.
Ellen covered her mouth, "What happens to the consciousness that originally inhabited the body?"
Tory shrugged, "Destroyed by the transfer process. But that's not the point- it's only a theory and only for use in dire emergencies." She looked between Saul and Ellen, "I mean, if any of the five were damaged and unable to download, it would be a viable option- we cannot be lost."
Saul cursed loudly, "Absolutely not. We won't kill organics just because we can." Saul turned and left.
Ellen looked sadly at Tory, "How much of this did you tell John?"
"All of it."
"Here's the deal kid. One, or John as we called him, is a bastard. He frakked the five over and changed the programming of the other six operational models to forget us." Saul looked directly at Ianto, "Tory, in one of her fits of stupidity told him about direct transfer and we're positive that he developed the technology on his own as a fail safe." He started pacing back and forth, "This technique lets him transfer his consciousness into any living body- you get that? He can be anyone." He stopped to let that sink in, "We knew John was smart, hell; we made him that way, so you were designed to keep him in check. The only problem is that he killed you before you had a chance to mature and grow into the role." He pointed at a wall panel that shifted into a map of the Earth, "We programmed this base star with a way of tracking John's energy signature and if he was detected after your DNA had reconstituted, the ship would send a pulse at Earth triggering your latents genes and forcing you to be born." Saul smirked, "Sorry about that by the way, natural birth- childhood, adolescence and all that are a bitch!" He chuckled to himself for a moment, then sobered up. "Here's the deal. You would have been born in a similar area to where John was detected. You probably ended up near each other as well, probably hating each other at some level or fighting over something. John wants to live forever, and if he's still around by the time you see this, then he's been going over a hundred thousand years."
Jack couldn't help but gasp as Ianto mumbled, "Bloody hell."
Saul kept on, "But John always was an arrogant son of a bitch, so if there's anybody out there that could give him the eternal life he wants without having to jump bodies, then he's going to make a play for it." Saul turned and looked directly at Ianto, "As long as he has to switch bodies regularly, he can't become too powerful; but if he somehow finds a body that lives longer- well, let's just say you're utterly frakked." He pointed at the wall and a drawer opened, "There's a detector in there- it will lead you right to John, in whatever form he's hiding. Touch him with the detector and it will erase his sorry ass forever." He paused, "The body will die- there's nothing to be done about that since it was blanked the minute John moved in." Saul went to stand by the drawer, "Take it kid and erase that frakking pain-in-the-ass." The hologram faded, leaving Jack and Ianto standing with their mouths agape.
Gwen listened as her team confirmed their locations while she stood next to the cordoned off area that used to be Roald Dahl Plass. Johnson and her shooters were all equipped with the strongest sedative they knew was safe for Time Lords. Just as he'd promised, the blue box phased into reality within moments of the agreed time. The dark haired man in pinstripes stepped out and looked around for Martha, but of course she wasn't there. Gwen took long strides towards the Doctor and gave him a wave and her best smile and he relaxed as he stepped far enough away from the TARDIS for a clear shot. "Now!" She shouted down the open comm link and several shots flew, three of which hit the Doctor. He stood there for a moment looking confused before collapsing to the ground. She quickly jogged over to his position to confirm that he was still alive before giving a thumbs up signal to Johnson and her sharpshooters. Then, without a single moment of remorse, she pressed the remote detonator button and listened as the headsets she'd equipped Johnson and her team with exploded, taking all of them out. She looked around quickly to see if any living thing was left and smiled, "That went well."
"So, you're a genetically engineering person who has spent the past hundred and fifty thousand years hidden in the human genome, only to be activated and born to do battle with your evil brother?" Jack was still a bit dumbfounded by what they'd learned the past few hours.
Ianto tugged at the suit he'd found, the cut was different and the lapels were a bit odd, but it was at least a suit. "It would appear so."
"And you thought my stories were hard to believe," Jack quipped.
Ianto place his hand back in one of the information baths tentatively and gasped as the data began flooding his mind. "So much history. So much loss." He muttered under his breath as his eyes fell shut. All the information fell into place as Daniel and Ianto melded into a single entity. An entity that appreciated the fact that Jack Harkness was now standing directly behind him, holding him up as the data continued to flow. "I can fly this ship- I can fly all of the ships in the hangers." He said in awe as Jack's breath ghosted over his throat, "Jack, it's amazing!"
Jack let his nose rest in the crook of Ianto's neck and he inhaled the familiar scent. There were minor differences, probably because this Ianto had been grown rather than born, but the underlying esters and molecules that identified him as Ianto Jones were still there. It was all getting to be a bit much a far as Jack was concerned and he startled as a slightly sticky hand reached up and rested on his face, "Tears? Why are you crying, Jack?" Ianto whispered as he turned around and held Jack, keeping a hand on his cheek.
Jack sighed, "I don't know who you are anymore. Are you this ancient hero Daniel? What about Ianto? I, "Jack faltered, "I loved Ianto." Jack felt himself being held upright and then warm hands guided his head towards tender lips that he remembered so well. The kiss was tender and deep and Jack couldn't help but cry because he felt like it was goodbye, but the kiss ended and he was surprised to see a smile staring back at him.
"You are an utter sop, Jack." Ianto smiled, "Daniel is a template and a set of memories; but they aren't my memories. I am Ianto Jones and have every intention of staying that way." He leaned in and gave Jack another quick kiss, "And if you didn't notice, you never have to lose me again. I may die, but now I come back too."
Jack stood still, completely lost and thrown by Ianto's statement. To never have to actually lose someone ever again was enough to make him crack. With a gasp, he pulled Ianto to him and began kissing like his very life depended on it as Ianto allowed Jack to do as he wished. Even through tears and laughter, Jack continued to kiss Ianto until a warning alarm began to sound and the slowly parted.
"So, uhm." Jack mumbled.
Ianto smiled, "We should probably."
"Yeah."
"See what that was," Ianto continued. He took Jack's hand and turned back around to the information bath, "You want to try?" Jack didn't have a chance to speak before Ianto took their joined hands and sunk them into the conductive gel.
Jack tried to pull away as information and images flooded his mind, but after a moment they slowed and became clear and defined. "Whoa," he gasped.
"It takes a minute to adjust, but." Ianto stopped speaking as they both received mental images of how John appeared now, "Oh hell." Then as the scanners continued their tracking, the rhythm of a double heartbeat came to their attention and Jack pulled back alarmed.
"Oh god!" He looked at Ianto wide eyed, "We've got to stop her!"
Ianto slowly slid his hand from the fluid and sighed, "Fighting over something he wanted." Ianto looked at Jack sadly, "He wanted you, Jack. Probably studied you the entire time you were in Cardiff and finally lined up the perfect host body to ingratiate himself. Then it was a simple matter of waiting for the perfect time to transfer into you and never have to worry again." Ianto shook his head sadly, "I always thought she was interested in you romantically, but that wasn't it at all."
"I left. She tried to convince me to stay, thought that she would be enough for me to stay, but I left." Jack whispered, "So he targeted the next longest lived person he knew about." Jack grabbed Ianto's hand and started dragging him out of the room, "We've got to stop her- him- from taking the Doctor's body. The universe can't afford for the last Time Lord to become..." Jack searched for the right word.
"Wrong."
The Doctor awoke in a fog, only to find himself secured to a table with an IV drip in his arm. He looked around in fear, "What's going on?"
From the darkened corner of the room, he saw Gwen Cooper- one of Jack's team- step into the light. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to wake up. Three of those darts left a hoix out cold for a week, but here you are all sunshine and flowers after only an hour." Her smile lacked warmth and was nearly predatory. "You know, I've spent almost a century trying to get Jack Harkness where I wanted him and when I finally think I've got him, he buggers off." She frowned and started counting off on her fingers, "Found a naive looking girl to take over that would attract his attention. Got him to trust me enough to hire me into Torchwood and then I systematically made sure I constantly made him doubt himself. First by complaining about his 'inhumane' actions and then by making sure each of the team was killed and he had to watch." She paused for a moment, "I even hired some drug addicts from the Carina Nebula to terrorize the people and their children." She removed a syringe from her pocket and took hold of the port on the IV bag, "Made him watch his precious little Ianto die in his arms and then topped it off by making him sacrifice his own grandson." She pushed the needle in, "I mean, that should have been enough to break him down to the point he'd come running to me, but he didn't." She pressed a cc into the IV, "He left me with that great oaf I married to make him jealous and just buggered off on some transport. The nerve of him!"
The Doctor felt his pulse begin to race and he looked at the IV in fear which made her smile, "What did you inject?"
She patted him lightly, "Oh, it's only a two percent solution of acetylsalicylic acid, common aspirin." His eyes grew wide and she grinned like a predator, "Oh, that's right, you're deathly allergic to aspirin aren't you? Don't worry, according to all of the records I made UNIT release and Martha review, this low a dosage will only make you sick and weak- just like I need."
"Martha? What have you done to her?" He could feel sweat begin to bead on his forehead.
"Don't you worry about pesky little Martha Jones. She's safely locked in the deepest, darkest cell I could find in a UNIT prison, so don't be expecting any sort of rescue from her." She pressed the plunger a little further and waited. "I just need you adequately disoriented so I can download properly. It works best when the subject is slightly disassociated from their body. Taking this dumb slapper only required a half dozen pints, but hey; she met my needs." The Doctor felt fingers pressed sharply against his throat, "Not much longer, then you'll forget all about this. Of course, you'll no longer exist, but that's just a minor detail."
Ianto looked at the warehouse and had to laugh at the irony. "He probably trapped the pterodactyl in there to begin with."
Jack looked around and smiled, "Most likely. Got to love the symmetry of it though." Jack held one of the rather ominous looking handguns they'd found on the base star and greatly appreciated the fifty calibre launcher mounted below the main barrel. "We could have used these during the Cyberman." He stopped quickly, remembering.
Ianto gave a sad smile, "Yeah. They probably would have helped considering they were designed to take out armored robots." Ianto checked the scanner again and confirmed that John was still a separate entity from the Doctor, "Far back right corner. We should probably go around and come in from the other side, minimize the warning."
Jack shook his head, "Doors on the other side are welded shut, this is the only access. We just have to be quiet." Jack paused, "Tell me again why I can't just put a round between her eyes and be done with it?"
"Because John's preparing to download; that means he's already beginning to let go of the body and if death is imminent, he can transfer before we can stop him. Then we'd be stuck with John in a Time Lord's body." Ianto stopped and held up the small device, "This is the only guaranteed way of the Doctor coming out of this as himself. It will erase John's pattern, but..." He looked at Jack carefully, "You do understand, the body of Gwen Cooper will die?"
Jack nodded, "There's no proof that we ever knew Gwen Cooper, so I guess she'll just be another Torchwood casualty."
Ianto placed a hand on Jack's arm, "No. Not Torchwood, this is a war that's been waging since long before Torchwood- long before humanity." Ianto took a deep breath and carefully pushed the door open.
Gwen ran an appreciative hand along the Doctor's secured body, "You won't be such a bad shell, I've had worse over the years. Then again the original was nothing to write home about." She was musing, "Do you have any idea how unfair it is to be born into a nearly seventy year old body? Just because my creator wanted me to look like her father." Gwen shuddered, "bad knees, failing eyesight, all the negatives of old age without any of the positives of getting there." She stopped, "But if I understand the files right, I've got what? Three complete regenerations to look forward to on top of whatever is left in this body? That's some trick your people developed for cheating death. Much better than our downloading into duplicate constructs over and over. Then again, it's been a hundred and fifty thousand years since I was in that original model." She checked the Doctor's blood pressure and was happy to see it had dropped and his temperature had raised three degrees, "Of course Jack would have been the ultimate prize- bright shiny teeth, the body and jawline." She grinned again, "And if watching Ianto walk around bow legged was any indication, he's not only a shower but a grower." She retrieved a small device from her pocket and placed it on the Doctor's forehead, "Maybe next time, after I've burned your husk up I can snag him as my prize- shouldn't be to difficult, offering your body up to him. He's been trying to bed you since he first saw you." She smiled, "Time to say goodbye, Doctor."
"Now I'm just jealous," a voice carried in the warehouse, "here I thought you'd gone to all that trouble to get me and the minute my back is turned you make a pass at him, the Doctor. Really?" Jack Harkness stepped into the light and Gwen narrowed her eyes as she glared at him, and the colonial sidearm he had directed at her.
"Oh God, Jack! Thank goodness you've come back!" Gwen pouted prettily, "After you left, everything fell apart! Rhys was killed in a tragic accident and I lost the baby," she placed a hand over her abdomen. "UNIT is in chaos and they've thrown Martha in prison and they were going to kill the Doctor! But I got here first and was just about to save him." She gave him her biggest wide-eye, sappy smile. When Jack didn't respond she gave it up, "Not buying it, eh? How about this? You come over here and take string bean's place and let me have that wonderful body of yours or you can watch me fry his brain and then force you to kill his body over and over."
"I don't think so, John." The lilting Welsh tones floated from behind her and she spun quickly in surprise.
"Ianto!" She noticed the device in his hand, "Or should I say, Daniel?"
Ianto put himself between Gwen and the Doctor, "Ianto is fine, but I have all of Daniel's memories- and then some." He held the device up, "I'm here to stop you, John. This is the end."
Gwen pulled a gun out and leveled it at Ianto, "Maybe I don't want this to be the end. Maybe I like still being alive after all this time." She turned quickly and trained the gun on Jack, "I can always shoot you and keep doing as I planned Jack, so don't fuck with me!" She gasped as something cold pressed against her neck and her hand convulsed, firing a round directly at Jack, bringing him down. "No!"
Ianto carefully lowered the body to the cold concrete floor, "I'm sorry, John. You couldn't be allowed to take the Doctor or Jack, or any other life again."
John gasped in Gwen's body, "What gives you the right to decide? How are you any better?" She convulsed and her arms flapped about for a moment.
"I was your first victim, John. That gives me the right." Ianto watched as the convulsions stopped and Gwen Cooper's body lay dead on the floor, "Goodbye, brother."
Jack gasped back to life a moment later shouting, "Ianto!" He looked around quickly and saw Gwen's body lying still as Ianto released the Doctor from the straps holding him to the table, "Did it work?"
Ianto turned and gave Jack a sad smile, "Yes. John's gone. He couldn't transfer to the Doctor because his device wasn't ready and he couldn't make an emergency download into you because you were dead. The scanner worked just as they said it would- there's no trace of John's energy signature left."
Ianto watched from a distance as Jack said his goodbyes to the Doctor. It had taken them a few weeks to clear up the mess that John had created as Gwen, including freeing Martha Jones from the UNIT prison. Torchwood was closed for business, a new UNIT team would monitor the rift and care for Cardiff. Jack was still leaving Earth after all that had happened. As the TARDIS faded away, Jack turned around and headed to where Ianto waited by the Pierhead building. He smiled as he stopped just short of Ianto, "So. Bags packed?"
Ianto smiled, "It wasn't difficult seeing as I was dead and all of my belonging were boxed up in a storage locker." Jack's smile slipped and Ianto stepped forward, "It's okay, Jack. I was dead. That's what Torchwood does. I don't blame you for doing what has to be done- I never have."
Jack let his hand slide down and grasp Ianto's. "So, are we ready?"
Ianto gave Jack a light kiss and pulled him behind the building where a colonial raptor waited, "All set."
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Torchwood, Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica (no, really.)
Warnings: Post-Children of Earth, Multiple Character Deaths
Notes: Another one for the antigwenallies Crossover Challenge. A special nod to vipersweb who is busting her backside studying.
Jack closed his eyes as the transport beam locked on him and began the matter transfer. That way, his last view of Earth wasn't Gwen Cooper looking at him dejected for not staying to fulfill her selfish needs. He hated transport beams, especially primitive ones like this that didn't dematerialize the passenger. He let the pain of transport physically join the mental misery of the past six months, but it would be short lived as the beam should deliver him to the vessel in about two minutes. The sudden completion of the transport and his knees making impact with steel plating jarred Jack back into the moment as he looked around and did not recognize the glowing white panels or the flashing red dot patterns on the walls.
"Where the hell am I?" Jack muttered. He was beyond tired and the last thing he needed was to be in the wrong place. "Of course a ship has to cross my matter stream because not enough has gone wrong." Jack looked around, "So, going to space me or what? Maybe you'd like to kick me a bit first?" His voice broke as he yelled at the walls around him, but the scrolling red glyphs remained unchanged. He checked his vortex manipulator, but only a small percentage of its technology continued to work. The ship design was unknown, but for all of the cleanliness the ship itself was ancient. "Hundred and fifty thousand years? Come on!" Jack slapped the vortex manipulator and sighed in disgust, "Okay, you've had your fun, now who the hell are you?" Jack jumped when the wall panels in front of him lit up and then slid open, revealing hallways with more white panels.
With nothing to lose, Jack wandered into the hallway and saw nothing but more of the same until the white wall panels began flashing the red graphics in a flowing pattern, leading in a specific direction. "Great, on board GPS. I'll just go this way, shall I?" The pattern lead him down hallways that were interchangeable until another wall lit up and slid open. "What now?"
The room was dark except for a single panel covered with the flowing red glyphs and what looked like a bathtub in the middle of the room that was lit from within. "So apparently I need to freshen up before I meet my hosts? Whatever." Jack wandered into the room and headed for the tub then stumbled and fell against it looking in, "No."
"Poor Daniel. He was such a gentle soul." Ellen continued to cry as she ran her fingers through his short hair, the body growing cold under her fingers.
Galen and Sam were studying the genetic data with growing concern as Saul shook his head after returning from the maturation chamber. Sam looked over to Ellen, holding the now dead number seven that they'd all grown so quickly to love as Daniel, then back to where Tory and John were arguing in hushed tones. "This wasn't an accident."
Saul gave him a warning glance, then sat down beside his wife and their lost child, "The matrix destabilized, I'm sorry Ellen, but he's gone. Seven is a failure."
Ellen pulled away from Saul's touch and gave Daniel a last hug before lowering his body to the floor. She stood up and her gaze was cold, "He was never a failure and he's not lost."
It was dark, darker than he had ever experienced. Even in the deepest, darkest parts of the Hub, his eyes could still make out some shapes; but this was different. This was nothing. And as dark as it had been, suddenly there was light everywhere and memories, he remembered who he was, where he had been. He remembered his last words, last words both times. Both times? He remembers his mother's blond hair falling on his face as she held him and cried while his internal organs shutdown and the download began. But then there's a man with dark hair, but eyes just like mother's crying as a virus runs rampant through him. The events blur as his brain tries to slot the memories into proper order, but he hears both voices call his name, and it's not the same.
Jack fell back on his arse as the man in the gel-filled tub gasped into life. The man's hands scrabbled for purchase on the sides of the vessel as he continued to pull in gaping lungfuls of air and looked around wildly. "Where? Where am I?" The decidedly Welsh accent floated around the sterile room as machinery hummed quietly. Stifled crying caught his attention and he looked around the empty room and his eyes fell on the form, sprawled on the floor crying. "Jack?" He grabbed at the sides of the vessel and tried to pull himself out, but the gel suspension was too slick and he fell back into the pool with an undignified thud. Once he had some semblance of balance, he looked back to the prone man on the floor, "Jack? I could really use some help getting out of this, whatever it is."
Jack looked at the man in the tub again, the gel dripped from him, but the pale skin was so familiar as was the dark hair covering it. Jack pressed himself up and walked carefully to the vessel and reached out. The skin tingled with electricity, but was warm just as he remembered. The blue eyes studied him with concern and Jack let his hand rest on the man's cheek, earning a familiar smile. Jack didn't understand, but at the moment he didn't care.
"Ianto."
The ugly creature known as the 456 looked almost comical when not hiding in a cloud of toxic gasses. The multiple legs barely supported its weight in Earth gravity while the mouths, on their tall necks, bobbed around like demented flowers. The child, or rather the onboard drug source, was held securely to its side with tentacles and a specialized sucker kept the parasite alive. They were little more than evolved angler fish on their own world, but on Earth they had hoped to secure plenty of drug sources, like the addicts they were.
But the creature was cowering slightly at the moment, mouths retracted and the parasite buried as far into its body as possible while it hid behind the formerly living body of Rhys Williams that it now animated with several tentacles begging forgiveness from the boss who had planned the heist.
"We're sorry mistress. The humans hurt us, the sounds hurt us." Rhys Williams' voice came out flat and unmodulated, which was unsurprising as the creature was merely making use of his vocal chords to communicate. "Can we still have the gifts?" The last statement was almost hopeful, like an addict begging for another hit.
Gwen Cooper turned around, her eyes furious and her words spat in anger, "Gifts? Why should I let you worthless scum have gifts now?" She strode past the animated corpse and glared at the multiple eyes of the creature, it fearfully pulled as many as possible down into its bulbous body, "You only get what you want if I get what I want." She turned away and left the creature and the body of Rhys Williams, "I wanted Jack Harkness- the man who can't die!" She stormed out of the empty warehouse, leaving the creature cowering behind. After several minutes, the creature allowed its eyes to begin searching and discovering that there was no one around, it dropped the corpse and slowly began eating the carrion. After all, they were bottom feeding scavengers on their home world and this body hadn't been dead very long.
Jack continued to run a hand along Ianto's arm, still not believing that he was really there. In his long life, Jack had witnessed many things that barely made sense; but a living Ianto Jones in a spaceship, wrapped in a fluffy white bathrobe when Jack himself had witnessed the cremation of his body not five months earlier had quickly moved to the top position on the list. "So, who- or what- are you?" Jack's hand stopped roaming as it reached Ianto's wrist and then a second, warm hand was clasped over top of it.
"I'm- I'm not sure?" Ianto's answered haltingly, "I remember us on floor thirteen, I remember shooting at the creature and," he faltered. "Oh god, Jack- I died!" Ianto's eyes grew wide and he was hyperventilating, but Jack pulled him close, letting Ianto's head rest against his chest. As Ianto slowly regained control, letting Jack's heartbeat steady his own he began to muse. "I'm Ianto Jones. I was born in Cardiff. My mam ran out on us when I was ten, my Dad was a clerk at Debenhams. I have an older sister and she has two kids and is married to a fool." He sat back up and looked into Jack's eyes, "I remember all of it. I lived that life, oh god I remember Lisa and Tosh and Owen! Jack- what the hell am I?" Jack tried to pulled the panicking man back against him, but Ianto pushed away, standing up next to the vessel he'd awakened in. "Did you bring me back? Oh god, I'm not like Owen was am I?" He quickly pressed his fingers to his throat, feeling for a pulse and found one. "Where are we?"
Jack rose calmly, desperate to hold Ianto, but understanding that if he moved too quickly he might dart. "I don't know. It's a ship of some sort that intercepted my transport beam. I found you in that vat and then you," Jack searched for the right word, "woke up?"
Ianto looked at the vat with concern, but a tiny glimmer of recognition floated in the back of his mind. Without thinking, he let a hand drop into the gelled fluid and his eyes grew wide as the room became brighter. Jack moved to his side quickly and they both watched in amazement as the figure of a woman; not young, but still beautiful formed across from the vessel. "Mother?"
Lois followed a few steps behind Gwen as they exited number ten. They'd delivered their ultimatum to the acting prime minister after receiving assurances from Her Majesty that Torchwood would retain its place within her administration. Lois had never met a royal up close and had been suitably cowered at the prospect, but Gwen apparently feared nothing and in reflection, she really had nothing left to fear. In half a year she'd gone from being a member of Torchwood to the head of the organization after the departure of the former head, Captain Jack Harkness. She'd also outlived all of her team- not just the young man in the suit that she'd witnessed, but a medic and computer specialist as well. To top it off, her husband had only recently died in a tragic accident and the grief had caused her to miscarry. Lois hadn't asked about the miscarriage or how Gwen had coped, but this harder, more focused person she followed was obviously the result.
They climbed into the new Torchwood SUV, and Gwen didn't even look as she pulled into oncoming traffic. They were on their way to their final stop, UNIT headquarters, where they'd be putting the screws to the officers who'd been caught collaborating. Torchwood would have Martha Jones, and more importantly, all information and access to the mysterious alien known as the Doctor.
Lois peered out the edge of her eyes at Gwen and wondered if she'd ever be hard enough to do what Gwen was.
Jack looked at the hologram and back at Ianto, "That's not your mother. She looks nothing like the photo in your file." Jack turned back to the hologram, which smiled in the direction of Ianto before speaking.
"Hello Daniel. I'm so glad you've come back to us." She smiled, "Of course, you probably aren't called Daniel now, and you most likely have no idea who I am, but you will- in time."
Saul and Galen looked on in confusion as Ellen pulled hairs from her own head and then from both of them. They watched as she placed the hairs in a pool of biogel and stepped back as the pool sealed over and a timer started. "There. He'll be ready when the time comes."
Galen frowned at the display, "It won't be him Ellen, it will just be a meat puppet without a download."
Ellen shook her head, "He'll be ready when the download happens. I checked Hera's RNA, the inheritance worked." She smiled at Saul, "Daniel will come back when he's needed- and his body will be waiting."
She kissed her fingers and let them rest on the vessel's protective shell for a moment before turning and leaving the chamber. With little choice, Galen and Saul followed. Ellen's voice carried down the hallway, "The centurions will guard him and bring him back when the time is right."
The hologram smiled fondly, "You're wondering what happened to you, how you ended up here. You probably remember dying, but don't let that scare you too much. Try to let the pain fade, but remember the lessons learned." She stepped forward and a display appeared above the vessel, "You are the ultimate result of the Cylon race. An engineered life form with the ability to transfer your consciousness to new bodies as your old body dies of natural or unnatural causes. We five were the only survivors of our world, which was destroyed in a nuclear holocaust and we traveled back to our origins in hopes of stopping a repeat of the same mistakes." She turned to the display, "Unfortunately, we were too late. The humans of the colonies had forgotten the past and repeated the same mistake, recreating artificial intelligence and then letting it become resentful. By the time we arrived, the new Cylons were crushing the human colonies in battle. We five stepped in and stopped the war by offering these new Cylons organic life like ourselves and the ability to download their consciousness into new bodies." She paused, "We stopped the war, but there was a price."
Suddenly, seven faces appeared on the display, "These are the seven organic models we developed. Each was to perform a specific function within the new Cylon culture. The first, we called John after my father and we nurtured him. We taught him all about our past and he helped us as we created each of the following models, until the seventh." She looked wistfully in Ianto's direction, "Seven was special. He was the child Saul and I never had and I loved him so very much. We called him Daniel, the name I always wanted to give a son, and we encoded much more into his DNA than any of the others." Daniel appeared on the screen, and both Jack and Ianto gasped when he looked exactly like Ianto.
Ellen sighed, "John was jealous. He hated that I loved Daniel best, so he used the knowledge we'd given him to poison Daniel and corrupt the seed material beyond recovery." Tears could be seen falling from her eyes, "You died in terrible agony and I held you through to the very end." She stopped and looked away as she wiped tears from her eyes before turning back, "But John wasn't as clever as he thought. He didn't understand everything so he couldn't possibly comprehend what we did while creating the eight."
Galen kept watch while Sam and Ellen performed the final manipulations to the mitochondrial DNA for the number eight. The changes were subtle and would hold up to any of the scans they'd taught John. As they stepped back and watched the new cells divide, Sam looked at Ellen, "You do understand how long this will take, don't you? And there's still no guarantee that the eights will succeed where the threes and sixes have failed."
Ellen focused her attention on the replicating batteries of creation and smiled, "Only one eight need succeed and the wheels will be set in motion." She looked into Sam's eyes, "Daniel will be there when he's needed."
Martha looked around the dank cell she'd been locked in. She'd heard about these undocumented UNIT prisons and the stories Toshiko Sato told about her time in one, but Martha never expected to find herself in this position. When she and Tom had returned from their honeymoon on the small island, she couldn't believe the stories that were told. They'd had no electricity, and more importantly, no children around to have any idea what had happened in those fateful five days. But on return, she'd seen the broken form of Jack Harkness and stood silently beside him as the lifeless body of Ianto Jones was transferred to the crematorium and waited until all the remained was ashes. She'd not seen Jack since then, and was horrified to hear of the war trials being held naming several British government officials and military officers from the United States and UNIT. She'd witnessed the executions, but she still didn't understand why she was in this cell.
The door to her cell was thrown open and a person stood back lit in the space. As her eyes adjusted, Martha finally recognized Gwen Cooper and relaxed slightly, "Gwen? Thank goodness you're here! I..." Martha didn't finish her thought as Gwen stepped back and two guards entered the cell, dragging Martha between them while Gwen watched in stony silence. Martha looked around frantically as she was dragged down a hallway and unceremoniously dumped into a chair, then manacled at the ankles to the chair. After a moment's confusion, Martha watched as the guards left and Gwen dropped into the chair across from her and pushed a mobile phone across the table.
"Call him." Gwen's voice was cold.
Martha looked at the phone and then at Gwen with confusion written on her face, "Who? I can't reach Jack. If anyone could it would be you. Gwen, what's going on? Can you help get me out of here?"
Gwen said nothing, only stared blankly at her, "Call the Doctor, make him come here now and I'll arrange for your release."
Martha frowned, "Why do you need the Doctor? If there's something wrong, maybe I can help? Come on Gwen, talk to me." She pushed her hands across the table, but Gwen leaned back in her chair so that they wouldn't make contact. "Gwen?"
"The only thing I need from you is a phone call bringing the Doctor here. To Torchwood- to me. If you are unwilling or unable to do that, then I have no use for you." Gwen waved to the video camera and the security guards returned, standing to each side of Martha. "And they can escort you back to your permanent residence."
Martha picked up the mobile and stared at it, then looked again at Gwen Cooper, who displayed no emotion. She flipped the clam shell open and began dialing.
The Ellen hologram smiled, "When the eight succeeded in reproducing, I knew you'd be back. Sam's calculations estimated it would take about six thousand generations for your DNA to reconstitute so you could be born amongst the humans, and by that time this module will have a replacement body available for download when needed." She ran a virtual hand over the tank's surface, "The nutrient bath continually renews the construct until needed, and the centurions promised that they would return this ship to Earth once it was ready. I imagine the humans have developed at least some modicum of space technology at this point, so it's likely the base star is probably orbiting one of the nearby planets." She looked back up at Ianto, "This is your heritage Daniel, all of the knowledge of the Cyclon race along with all Colonial archives are contained within this ship's systems. All you need do to access them is place your hand in any of the information pools throughout the ship." She smiled again, "You are our crowning achievement, Daniel. Make us proud." Ellen Tigh reached her hand out, and Ianto reached as well- real and photonic touching above the white pool because she faded away.
Jack reached for Ianto's hand as he lowered it and was about to speak when the lighting shifted to red and another hologram formed. This man, in an obvious military uniform and eye patch frowned and crossed his arms. "So now that Ellen's given you all of the hearts and flowers, it's time for the real business at hand seven. That world of yours is in frakkin' trouble and you have to fix it. Daniel, John's alive down there and it's time to box him."
"No. We will not develop that technology." Galen turned and walked away from John and Tory and pushed passed Ellen and Saul as he went.
Saul glared at John, "What did you do to piss him off this time?"
"We were only discussing an alternate download process for terminal emergencies. It's not as if I was suggesting it." John frowned and looked back at Tory, "You explain it, I'm going to check on the maturation chambers." John stepped away and headed down a hallway, leaving Tory to suffer Saul's ire.
"Well?"
"I've developed a theory that would allow direct download of one of our consciousnesses into any suitable organic body. Once the emergency download was completed, extraction could be performed once you returned to a resurrection station." Tory believed her idea had merit, and John was very interested- so interested that he'd already started initial testing.
Ellen covered her mouth, "What happens to the consciousness that originally inhabited the body?"
Tory shrugged, "Destroyed by the transfer process. But that's not the point- it's only a theory and only for use in dire emergencies." She looked between Saul and Ellen, "I mean, if any of the five were damaged and unable to download, it would be a viable option- we cannot be lost."
Saul cursed loudly, "Absolutely not. We won't kill organics just because we can." Saul turned and left.
Ellen looked sadly at Tory, "How much of this did you tell John?"
"All of it."
"Here's the deal kid. One, or John as we called him, is a bastard. He frakked the five over and changed the programming of the other six operational models to forget us." Saul looked directly at Ianto, "Tory, in one of her fits of stupidity told him about direct transfer and we're positive that he developed the technology on his own as a fail safe." He started pacing back and forth, "This technique lets him transfer his consciousness into any living body- you get that? He can be anyone." He stopped to let that sink in, "We knew John was smart, hell; we made him that way, so you were designed to keep him in check. The only problem is that he killed you before you had a chance to mature and grow into the role." He pointed at a wall panel that shifted into a map of the Earth, "We programmed this base star with a way of tracking John's energy signature and if he was detected after your DNA had reconstituted, the ship would send a pulse at Earth triggering your latents genes and forcing you to be born." Saul smirked, "Sorry about that by the way, natural birth- childhood, adolescence and all that are a bitch!" He chuckled to himself for a moment, then sobered up. "Here's the deal. You would have been born in a similar area to where John was detected. You probably ended up near each other as well, probably hating each other at some level or fighting over something. John wants to live forever, and if he's still around by the time you see this, then he's been going over a hundred thousand years."
Jack couldn't help but gasp as Ianto mumbled, "Bloody hell."
Saul kept on, "But John always was an arrogant son of a bitch, so if there's anybody out there that could give him the eternal life he wants without having to jump bodies, then he's going to make a play for it." Saul turned and looked directly at Ianto, "As long as he has to switch bodies regularly, he can't become too powerful; but if he somehow finds a body that lives longer- well, let's just say you're utterly frakked." He pointed at the wall and a drawer opened, "There's a detector in there- it will lead you right to John, in whatever form he's hiding. Touch him with the detector and it will erase his sorry ass forever." He paused, "The body will die- there's nothing to be done about that since it was blanked the minute John moved in." Saul went to stand by the drawer, "Take it kid and erase that frakking pain-in-the-ass." The hologram faded, leaving Jack and Ianto standing with their mouths agape.
Gwen listened as her team confirmed their locations while she stood next to the cordoned off area that used to be Roald Dahl Plass. Johnson and her shooters were all equipped with the strongest sedative they knew was safe for Time Lords. Just as he'd promised, the blue box phased into reality within moments of the agreed time. The dark haired man in pinstripes stepped out and looked around for Martha, but of course she wasn't there. Gwen took long strides towards the Doctor and gave him a wave and her best smile and he relaxed as he stepped far enough away from the TARDIS for a clear shot. "Now!" She shouted down the open comm link and several shots flew, three of which hit the Doctor. He stood there for a moment looking confused before collapsing to the ground. She quickly jogged over to his position to confirm that he was still alive before giving a thumbs up signal to Johnson and her sharpshooters. Then, without a single moment of remorse, she pressed the remote detonator button and listened as the headsets she'd equipped Johnson and her team with exploded, taking all of them out. She looked around quickly to see if any living thing was left and smiled, "That went well."
"So, you're a genetically engineering person who has spent the past hundred and fifty thousand years hidden in the human genome, only to be activated and born to do battle with your evil brother?" Jack was still a bit dumbfounded by what they'd learned the past few hours.
Ianto tugged at the suit he'd found, the cut was different and the lapels were a bit odd, but it was at least a suit. "It would appear so."
"And you thought my stories were hard to believe," Jack quipped.
Ianto place his hand back in one of the information baths tentatively and gasped as the data began flooding his mind. "So much history. So much loss." He muttered under his breath as his eyes fell shut. All the information fell into place as Daniel and Ianto melded into a single entity. An entity that appreciated the fact that Jack Harkness was now standing directly behind him, holding him up as the data continued to flow. "I can fly this ship- I can fly all of the ships in the hangers." He said in awe as Jack's breath ghosted over his throat, "Jack, it's amazing!"
Jack let his nose rest in the crook of Ianto's neck and he inhaled the familiar scent. There were minor differences, probably because this Ianto had been grown rather than born, but the underlying esters and molecules that identified him as Ianto Jones were still there. It was all getting to be a bit much a far as Jack was concerned and he startled as a slightly sticky hand reached up and rested on his face, "Tears? Why are you crying, Jack?" Ianto whispered as he turned around and held Jack, keeping a hand on his cheek.
Jack sighed, "I don't know who you are anymore. Are you this ancient hero Daniel? What about Ianto? I, "Jack faltered, "I loved Ianto." Jack felt himself being held upright and then warm hands guided his head towards tender lips that he remembered so well. The kiss was tender and deep and Jack couldn't help but cry because he felt like it was goodbye, but the kiss ended and he was surprised to see a smile staring back at him.
"You are an utter sop, Jack." Ianto smiled, "Daniel is a template and a set of memories; but they aren't my memories. I am Ianto Jones and have every intention of staying that way." He leaned in and gave Jack another quick kiss, "And if you didn't notice, you never have to lose me again. I may die, but now I come back too."
Jack stood still, completely lost and thrown by Ianto's statement. To never have to actually lose someone ever again was enough to make him crack. With a gasp, he pulled Ianto to him and began kissing like his very life depended on it as Ianto allowed Jack to do as he wished. Even through tears and laughter, Jack continued to kiss Ianto until a warning alarm began to sound and the slowly parted.
"So, uhm." Jack mumbled.
Ianto smiled, "We should probably."
"Yeah."
"See what that was," Ianto continued. He took Jack's hand and turned back around to the information bath, "You want to try?" Jack didn't have a chance to speak before Ianto took their joined hands and sunk them into the conductive gel.
Jack tried to pull away as information and images flooded his mind, but after a moment they slowed and became clear and defined. "Whoa," he gasped.
"It takes a minute to adjust, but." Ianto stopped speaking as they both received mental images of how John appeared now, "Oh hell." Then as the scanners continued their tracking, the rhythm of a double heartbeat came to their attention and Jack pulled back alarmed.
"Oh god!" He looked at Ianto wide eyed, "We've got to stop her!"
Ianto slowly slid his hand from the fluid and sighed, "Fighting over something he wanted." Ianto looked at Jack sadly, "He wanted you, Jack. Probably studied you the entire time you were in Cardiff and finally lined up the perfect host body to ingratiate himself. Then it was a simple matter of waiting for the perfect time to transfer into you and never have to worry again." Ianto shook his head sadly, "I always thought she was interested in you romantically, but that wasn't it at all."
"I left. She tried to convince me to stay, thought that she would be enough for me to stay, but I left." Jack whispered, "So he targeted the next longest lived person he knew about." Jack grabbed Ianto's hand and started dragging him out of the room, "We've got to stop her- him- from taking the Doctor's body. The universe can't afford for the last Time Lord to become..." Jack searched for the right word.
"Wrong."
The Doctor awoke in a fog, only to find himself secured to a table with an IV drip in his arm. He looked around in fear, "What's going on?"
From the darkened corner of the room, he saw Gwen Cooper- one of Jack's team- step into the light. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to wake up. Three of those darts left a hoix out cold for a week, but here you are all sunshine and flowers after only an hour." Her smile lacked warmth and was nearly predatory. "You know, I've spent almost a century trying to get Jack Harkness where I wanted him and when I finally think I've got him, he buggers off." She frowned and started counting off on her fingers, "Found a naive looking girl to take over that would attract his attention. Got him to trust me enough to hire me into Torchwood and then I systematically made sure I constantly made him doubt himself. First by complaining about his 'inhumane' actions and then by making sure each of the team was killed and he had to watch." She paused for a moment, "I even hired some drug addicts from the Carina Nebula to terrorize the people and their children." She removed a syringe from her pocket and took hold of the port on the IV bag, "Made him watch his precious little Ianto die in his arms and then topped it off by making him sacrifice his own grandson." She pushed the needle in, "I mean, that should have been enough to break him down to the point he'd come running to me, but he didn't." She pressed a cc into the IV, "He left me with that great oaf I married to make him jealous and just buggered off on some transport. The nerve of him!"
The Doctor felt his pulse begin to race and he looked at the IV in fear which made her smile, "What did you inject?"
She patted him lightly, "Oh, it's only a two percent solution of acetylsalicylic acid, common aspirin." His eyes grew wide and she grinned like a predator, "Oh, that's right, you're deathly allergic to aspirin aren't you? Don't worry, according to all of the records I made UNIT release and Martha review, this low a dosage will only make you sick and weak- just like I need."
"Martha? What have you done to her?" He could feel sweat begin to bead on his forehead.
"Don't you worry about pesky little Martha Jones. She's safely locked in the deepest, darkest cell I could find in a UNIT prison, so don't be expecting any sort of rescue from her." She pressed the plunger a little further and waited. "I just need you adequately disoriented so I can download properly. It works best when the subject is slightly disassociated from their body. Taking this dumb slapper only required a half dozen pints, but hey; she met my needs." The Doctor felt fingers pressed sharply against his throat, "Not much longer, then you'll forget all about this. Of course, you'll no longer exist, but that's just a minor detail."
Ianto looked at the warehouse and had to laugh at the irony. "He probably trapped the pterodactyl in there to begin with."
Jack looked around and smiled, "Most likely. Got to love the symmetry of it though." Jack held one of the rather ominous looking handguns they'd found on the base star and greatly appreciated the fifty calibre launcher mounted below the main barrel. "We could have used these during the Cyberman." He stopped quickly, remembering.
Ianto gave a sad smile, "Yeah. They probably would have helped considering they were designed to take out armored robots." Ianto checked the scanner again and confirmed that John was still a separate entity from the Doctor, "Far back right corner. We should probably go around and come in from the other side, minimize the warning."
Jack shook his head, "Doors on the other side are welded shut, this is the only access. We just have to be quiet." Jack paused, "Tell me again why I can't just put a round between her eyes and be done with it?"
"Because John's preparing to download; that means he's already beginning to let go of the body and if death is imminent, he can transfer before we can stop him. Then we'd be stuck with John in a Time Lord's body." Ianto stopped and held up the small device, "This is the only guaranteed way of the Doctor coming out of this as himself. It will erase John's pattern, but..." He looked at Jack carefully, "You do understand, the body of Gwen Cooper will die?"
Jack nodded, "There's no proof that we ever knew Gwen Cooper, so I guess she'll just be another Torchwood casualty."
Ianto placed a hand on Jack's arm, "No. Not Torchwood, this is a war that's been waging since long before Torchwood- long before humanity." Ianto took a deep breath and carefully pushed the door open.
Gwen ran an appreciative hand along the Doctor's secured body, "You won't be such a bad shell, I've had worse over the years. Then again the original was nothing to write home about." She was musing, "Do you have any idea how unfair it is to be born into a nearly seventy year old body? Just because my creator wanted me to look like her father." Gwen shuddered, "bad knees, failing eyesight, all the negatives of old age without any of the positives of getting there." She stopped, "But if I understand the files right, I've got what? Three complete regenerations to look forward to on top of whatever is left in this body? That's some trick your people developed for cheating death. Much better than our downloading into duplicate constructs over and over. Then again, it's been a hundred and fifty thousand years since I was in that original model." She checked the Doctor's blood pressure and was happy to see it had dropped and his temperature had raised three degrees, "Of course Jack would have been the ultimate prize- bright shiny teeth, the body and jawline." She grinned again, "And if watching Ianto walk around bow legged was any indication, he's not only a shower but a grower." She retrieved a small device from her pocket and placed it on the Doctor's forehead, "Maybe next time, after I've burned your husk up I can snag him as my prize- shouldn't be to difficult, offering your body up to him. He's been trying to bed you since he first saw you." She smiled, "Time to say goodbye, Doctor."
"Now I'm just jealous," a voice carried in the warehouse, "here I thought you'd gone to all that trouble to get me and the minute my back is turned you make a pass at him, the Doctor. Really?" Jack Harkness stepped into the light and Gwen narrowed her eyes as she glared at him, and the colonial sidearm he had directed at her.
"Oh God, Jack! Thank goodness you've come back!" Gwen pouted prettily, "After you left, everything fell apart! Rhys was killed in a tragic accident and I lost the baby," she placed a hand over her abdomen. "UNIT is in chaos and they've thrown Martha in prison and they were going to kill the Doctor! But I got here first and was just about to save him." She gave him her biggest wide-eye, sappy smile. When Jack didn't respond she gave it up, "Not buying it, eh? How about this? You come over here and take string bean's place and let me have that wonderful body of yours or you can watch me fry his brain and then force you to kill his body over and over."
"I don't think so, John." The lilting Welsh tones floated from behind her and she spun quickly in surprise.
"Ianto!" She noticed the device in his hand, "Or should I say, Daniel?"
Ianto put himself between Gwen and the Doctor, "Ianto is fine, but I have all of Daniel's memories- and then some." He held the device up, "I'm here to stop you, John. This is the end."
Gwen pulled a gun out and leveled it at Ianto, "Maybe I don't want this to be the end. Maybe I like still being alive after all this time." She turned quickly and trained the gun on Jack, "I can always shoot you and keep doing as I planned Jack, so don't fuck with me!" She gasped as something cold pressed against her neck and her hand convulsed, firing a round directly at Jack, bringing him down. "No!"
Ianto carefully lowered the body to the cold concrete floor, "I'm sorry, John. You couldn't be allowed to take the Doctor or Jack, or any other life again."
John gasped in Gwen's body, "What gives you the right to decide? How are you any better?" She convulsed and her arms flapped about for a moment.
"I was your first victim, John. That gives me the right." Ianto watched as the convulsions stopped and Gwen Cooper's body lay dead on the floor, "Goodbye, brother."
Jack gasped back to life a moment later shouting, "Ianto!" He looked around quickly and saw Gwen's body lying still as Ianto released the Doctor from the straps holding him to the table, "Did it work?"
Ianto turned and gave Jack a sad smile, "Yes. John's gone. He couldn't transfer to the Doctor because his device wasn't ready and he couldn't make an emergency download into you because you were dead. The scanner worked just as they said it would- there's no trace of John's energy signature left."
Ianto watched from a distance as Jack said his goodbyes to the Doctor. It had taken them a few weeks to clear up the mess that John had created as Gwen, including freeing Martha Jones from the UNIT prison. Torchwood was closed for business, a new UNIT team would monitor the rift and care for Cardiff. Jack was still leaving Earth after all that had happened. As the TARDIS faded away, Jack turned around and headed to where Ianto waited by the Pierhead building. He smiled as he stopped just short of Ianto, "So. Bags packed?"
Ianto smiled, "It wasn't difficult seeing as I was dead and all of my belonging were boxed up in a storage locker." Jack's smile slipped and Ianto stepped forward, "It's okay, Jack. I was dead. That's what Torchwood does. I don't blame you for doing what has to be done- I never have."
Jack let his hand slide down and grasp Ianto's. "So, are we ready?"
Ianto gave Jack a light kiss and pulled him behind the building where a colonial raptor waited, "All set."