Fic: Torchwood et la Bête (Team. Jack/Ianto PG-13) Chapter 17 / 28

Feb 11, 2010 20:32


Title: Torchwood et la Bête
by wynkat1313 
Pairing(s) Team, Jack/Ianto, Tosh/OC, references to Gwen/Rhys
Rating: PG-13
Warnings/Enticements: Some mild violence, a near death, romance, and a whole lot of colored lights
Spoilers: Anything is S1 is fair game as this takes place about mid S2
Prompt: Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) written for Reel_Torchwood round one
Beta’d by the amazing and incredibly patient and geeky temporal_witch , bless you hun!

Summary: When the team is invited to France to assist in a UNIT investigation of unusual Rift Activity, they go with dreams of a quick mission and a chance for a little R & R. Instead they find a wall of roses, an alien, and a mystery. Really, you’d think they would know better by now, they are Torchwood after all, and *nothing* in their world is ever simple.

Author's Note: 
Since this got REALLY long, I am going to post it chapter by chapter - a little Romance / Action/Adventure Serial-ness for everyone's viewing pleasure :) There are 28 chapter's total, so this will take a bit. If you really want to know how it ends before then, the PDF is still up at my writing journal :D along with a few surprises related to the story, 'cause i could.

Start at Chapter One

Part Four ~ the Glove

Chapter Seventeen

Ianto reached up with one hand and undid the top button of his shirt and pushed the stiff fabric open alongside the ends of his bow tie. He’d long since abandoned the tux jacket to the wooden valet in the bedroom and the night air was refreshingly cool after the warmth of the candle- and fire-lit dining hall.

He hitched his hip up onto the balcony’s balustrade and leaned back against the door jam. With the fingers of one hand, he teased at the crease in the fine wool of his black slacks. In his other hand, he held a crystal glass of water. He desperately wished he dared fill it with something stronger, but the wine he’d had with dinner was pushing his luck while he was technically still on duty.

The more he thought about the things he told Beast at dinner, the more he wondered which of them had learned the most. In point of fact, it seemed more like he’d stumbled upon a deeper understanding about himself and his relationship with Jack than anything new about the alien. He’d managed to put words to the jumble of thoughts and feelings he’d been struggling to define for a while now. Something about how Beast had asked his questions had triggered a flood of information that made everything in his head make sense for once. It was nothing like what he had expected a relationship should be, but, like he had said to Beast, it worked for him and it appeared to work for Jack. In the end, wasn’t that all that mattered?

A bird called out across the garden and Ianto leaned out into the darkness, searching for the source. From the far side of the pool, a peacock, startlingly white in the moonlight, strutted about, paying court to a dark green peahen. The bird preened, his enormous tail standing tall and proud. Ianto smiled and imagined Jack as the peacock showing off for anyone who would pay attention. Maybe he should see if he could find a few stray feathers from the bird to bring back and tease Jack with. They’d look so lovely against his skin.

Ianto stifled a sigh and scrubbed at his face. Damn it, he missed Jack. He missed his flat and his bed and he even missed the stupid piles of pizza boxes in the Hub. All this wandering around with nothing to do, even if it was in a beautiful castle, was starting to get to him. He needed to get back to base, back to the team, back to Jack. Back to his routines.

Sliding off the balustrade and turning back to the room, he saw Beast standing in the doorway, watching him.

“Forgive me, I did not mean to pry.”

Ianto shrugged one shoulder. “It’s all right.”

“It is late.”

Ianto dipped his head in acknowledgement and walked to the table beside the bed. He placed the glass down with exaggerated care on the waiting crystal coaster, wondering at the strange longing that seemed to keep pulling him and Beast together. With any other alien, Ianto would have found a stun gun, knocked him out and been off the grounds calling for backup. But here he was, waiting, in a gilded cage, for Beast to make the next move. It was like this whole place held them all in its thrall and they could only dance to the tune the castle set.

“You cannot sleep?” Beast asked, coming to stand beside Ianto.

Ianto looked over at Beast. “No.”  He slipped the cufflinks out of his shirt and carefully placed them back in their box. He ran his fingers along the tops of the rainbow-hued links, marveling at their diversity and beauty.

“Neither can I.” Beast nodded and walked to the balcony. “But that is hardly a hardship on a night such as this.”

“No.” Ianto watched Beast step through the open doors and out onto the balcony.

“Some people believe,” Beast said, looking out towards the peacock in the garden, “that the white peacock is a representation of both good and evil.”

Ianto regarded Beast with a raised eyebrow. Beast grinned, leaning back against the balustrade so that he could see Ianto and watch the peacock. Ianto crossed his arms and sat on the side of the bed, one toe digging into the thick blue carpet.

“The story goes that a peacock was charged with guarding the gates to Paradise when the devil approached. In defense of the sacred lands, the peacock ate the devil, and in this way the devil was able to get inside Paradise. And so evil entered into good and gave the bird its iridescent shading.”

Ianto shook his head with a smile.

“Ah, you smile again,” Beast said, clearly pleased with himself.

“So which do you see yourself as? The devil or the guardian?”

“Would you believe me if I said both?”

Ianto chuckled and nodded. “Would you believe me if I said yes?”

The peacock called out to his hen, drawing their attention back to his display. Beast watched the white bird parade around the grounds and Ianto watched Beast. Even without Owen’s medical training, Ianto could see that there was something very wrong with Beast and that he had gotten worse in the time that Ianto had been in the castle. He just wished he could make Beast understand that Jack and the team could help him.

Ianto pushed off the bed and walked to the desk where he’d placed his PDA and his comm unit. He fingered the ear piece, knowing there was still no signal, and wondering for the hundredth time what he could do to change that.

“You are unhappy here.”

Beast had glided into the room and was standing a few meters away, concern or something like it clear on his face. Behind him, his tail beat a rapid tattoo of worry. Ianto set the ear piece back on the desk. He’d meant to look back at Beast, to have a conversation with him, but he found his eyes drawn back to his PDA and everything it represented.

“For all its luxury, your castle is still my prison.”

“I wish you could feel otherwise.”

“So do I…. but my life is out there.” Ianto pointed out through the balcony windows to the world beyond the castle. “On the other side of your wall. And... I miss it.”

“And him?”

“Yes.” Ianto nodded, suddenly uncomfortable. “I’m worried about him. He was very ill when I left. Owen, our doctor, had no idea how to help him. I don’t know what has been happening while I’ve been gone and I don’t know how to do nothing.”

“Perhaps…” Beast turned slowly and Ianto watched him look around the room. “Perhaps it was a good thing your Jack came when he did.”

Ianto stared at Beast in surprise. This was the last thing he had expected to hear from him.

Beast walked away from Ianto to pace slowly around the room. He wandered from the desk to the wardrobe, to the bed, his hands lingering on various objects along the way. There was something in the way Beast moved that worried Ianto, almost as if he were saying goodbye to something or someone.

“I’ve lived alone for so long that I don’t know what it is to care about another person. I did not remember what it was to feel regret for my actions until I injured you, or to be pleased at kindness until you helped me.”

He stopped in front of the landscape painting and stared up at it for so long that Ianto thought he had forgotten where he was. But then Beast spoke again.

“I never learned how to lie, so I could not recognize the lies in another person, and that failing will likely cost me my life.”

Beast reached out to touch the painting, but stopped just before his fingertips touched the surface. He pulled his hand back slowly. In the candlelight, Ianto saw tears sink into the fur around Beast’s eyes. If he had not been leaning in, Ianto would have missed Beast’s whispered words: “Je t'aime, Maman.”

Beast turned to face Ianto, only the dampness on his cheeks giving indication of his grief.

“I told you that my father hid our ship and its power sources.”

Ianto nodded, hands in his pockets.

“That ship is here on the grounds.” Beast turned and pointed through the balcony doors into the heart of the garden. Ianto walked to the doors and looked out. Beast’s fingers directed his eyes to an old stone building at the center of the castle grounds. As the moon came out from behind the clouds, its silver light glinted off the lead glass windows that were set into the front wall of the building.

“The building is a visage to disguise our ship. This will grant you access.”

Ianto watched Beast withdraw a cube from the pouch at his waste. The cube had rounded edges and was made of glass or crystal. On the surface facing Ianto was the image of a key. As Ianto looked at the cube, it seemed to glow with a golden light, yet when he shifted his head, it looked copper, and when he tilted his head the other way, it looked silver.

“This crystal is the Key, quite literally. It is the only one that can banish the illusion that conceals the ship and begin the processes to wake her from her sleep.”

“Wake her?”

“The Diana is a living ship, a blend of sentient and latent molecules in perfect harmony that has carried my clan across the stars for generations.”

Beast pressed a button on the Key crystal. “Watch.”

Ianto looked through the open doors again. A beam of golden light suffused the tiny outbuilding. The walls shimmered and, as Ianto watched, the stone dissolved. From under the image of the building another shape appeared and blossomed. Its organic flowing forms expanded, contracted, and then settled into a glowing oblong shape. Where there had been stone lines and ivy, Ianto could now see a ship without angles or sharp edges, its surface flowing with an ever-moving prism of gold, silver and copper light.

The birds and night creatures had sprung away from the transforming ship in a cacophony of calls and cries, but now they settled back to brooding silence. Ianto could hear a faint hum rising through the night.

“She’s lovely,” Ianto sighed.

“She is yours now.” Beast placed the Key in Ianto’s hand. “In trust.”

“I don’t understand.”

“If you do not return, then this will be the last time I will ever see the Diana. And this room will become my burial chamber.”

“Return? You’re letting me go?”

“Your Jack needs healing. And you believe that you and your friends have the power to help me, so yes, I am letting you go.”

“But why?”

“I am dying, Ianto. And you have taught me how to hope again.”

“Beast, I don’t know what to say… thank you.” Ianto turned towards the room. “It’s a twenty-five minute drive at this hour from here to the base if I push it…”

“Ianto, wait.”  Beast followed Ianto into the room and stopped him with a hand on his arm. “I have one more thing for you.”

Beast reached into his pouch again and pulled out another cube. “This is the Glove. It, of all the Crystals, has two powers.”

Ianto rolled his eyes. “I’ve always said gloves come in pairs.”

“Indeed,” Beast said with a smile. “This one can take you wherever you wish to go in the blink of an eye, though it will cause you deep heartache.”

Ianto looked at him sharply. “What happens?”

“The crystals must have a source of power in order to perform their secondary functions. Each one draws upon that to which it is most attuned. The Glove is attuned to the salt water of tears and blood.”

“So I will cry or bleed?”

“Or both, if you choose to use the other function.”

“Which is?”

“The power to heal.”

Ianto rocked back on his heels. “Oh.”

“Be careful, Ianto. You can only use the crystal once per power cycle for each action, and the greater the distance traveled or the greater the healing, the deeper the drain it will make on you.”

Ianto took a deep breath and nodded.

“Is he worth your blood and tears?”

“Yes,” Ianto said without hesitation.

Beast handed the Glove crystal to Ianto. “There are three other crystals that you must find if you wish to heal me as well. Your Jack has the Rose.”

Ianto stared at Beast in surprise for a moment and then felt his face break into what he feared was a completely ridiculous grin. “He really did get me a rose.”

“In a way, yes,” Beast nodded, smiling softly. “The other two are the Horse and the Mirror.”

“The two stolen power sources.”

“Yes,” Beast agreed. “You must have all five if I am to complete the repairs to the Diana and finally go back to the stars.”

“We will find them, Beast. If there is a way to get you back into space, we will find it, I promise.”

“Do not make promises, Ianto. Just take the crystals and go to your friends. I will be here if you come back.”

“I will be back.”

It took Ianto four long minutes to gather up his personal gear and center himself enough to try Beast’s alien technology. He slid the tuxedo jacket back on for lack of anything better to wear and a desperate need of pockets, then nodded to Beast to let him know he was ready.

“Think about your Jack. Think about where he is right now, and how you want to be with him, then close your eyes and the crystal will do the rest.”

Ianto took a deep breath and held it for a minute, trying to calm his racing thoughts, then let it out slowly. He pulled the Glove crystal out of his pocket and held it in his palm. He pointed to one of the buttons.

Beast nodded. “Remember, the transport will require your tears and the healing your blood.”

“Right,” Ianto said, trying not to think too hard about what either offering really meant.

Ianto thought about Jack lying in the medical suite where Owen would have most likely have put him to keep an eye on him, and pushed the button.

Violet and blue light spilled out of the cube, filling the room with an underwater glow. A tidal wave of emotion swelled up in his chest. He was washed in love and desire, in sorrow and loss, in need and a thousand other emotions, each one accompanied by images of his past.

He sees Lisa, her eyes closed in bliss, drinking her first cup of his coffee. “You’re a wicked man, you are, Mr. Jones. May just have to marry you for your coffee.”

He remembers rolling his eyes as Jack turned to him from across the Hub, his hands pressed together in prayer, pleading with him for a cup of coffee.

He can feel Gwen leaning her head on his shoulder. She has a sleepy grin on her face and she’s telling him about Rhys proposing to her.

“He loves me just as I am. Can you imagine? Rhys knows nothing and everything about me and he loves me anyway. How is that possible?” She hugs his arm to her chest and sighs, happier than he’s heard her in ages.

Jack’s head is in his lap, a book in one hand, the other dangling down over the cushions of the couch to run lazy fingers over and across Ianto’s foot.

“A flower unplucked is but left to the falling,” Jack reads, his voice replacing the Hub’s quiet with Robert Frost. “And nothing is gained by not gathering roses.”

His own fingers wander aimlessly through the gelled stiffness of Jack’s hair. He loves the spiky, crunching feel of the product as it crumbles.  He closes his eyes and leans his head back against the soft leather of the couch in Jack’s office, letting the night take him into peace.

Owen is shouting at him. “Don't compare yourself to me. You're just a tea boy!”

He can feel the weight of the gun in his hand, the pressure in his chest, the need to stop Owen, and yet… what if he’s right… “I'm much more than that. Jack needs me.”

“In your dreams, Ianto. In your sad wet dreams when you're his part-time shag, maybe. That Rift took my lover and my captain. So if I die trying to beat it, then it will all be in the line of duty.”

There’s the recoil as the bullet flies from the chamber and the look on Owen’s face as the shot impacts his shoulder - all anger and shock and triumph - as he triggers the Rift anyway.

He can feel the metal grating digging into his knees, almost as cold as the gun in Jack’s hand pointed at his head. He’s beyond fear or pain. His world has exploded. Lisa is gone but he can’t stop - can’t let go. There’s nothing left of him to let go of, so he defends the past.

“You're not listening to me! The conversion was never completed!”

“She already tried to kill Gwen!” Jack shouts. He’s right, but Ianto can’t stop, can’t give up, not now. “You think she's gonna stop there? There is no turning back for her now!”

“I'm...not giving up on her. I love her. Can you understand that, Jack? Haven't you ever loved anyone?

He could see the sorrow in Tosh’s eyes the morning after. “I’m sorry…” she said. “About the mind reading…about what I saw, the pain you’re going through.”

He’d tried to tell her to forget the whole thing, but she caught his arm and held him tight; whether she was crying for him or herself, he was never sure.

“I’m so sorry, Ianto. I didn’t know… I didn’t know that you felt that way.” Her grief only made the rats hungrier.

Jack, lying in his arms, blood pumping out of the open vein at his throat where the alien weapon had caught him. He’d stepped in front of Tosh, saving her life and losing his own. Again. The stop watch is cold in Ianto’s hand as it ticks down the minutes to resurrection.

Ianto felt the tears spilling, unbidden, down his cheek as the crystal pulled tears from his soul to power his journey. His whole body felt liquid and raw, exposed to the moment. He clutched his arms to his chest and held on to the cube for dear life.

On to Chapter Eighteen  

jack, team, et la bete, ianto

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