likesthecoat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
likesthecoat) wrote2007-08-21 10:49 am
likesthecoat) wrote2007-08-21 10:49 am
Entry tags:
Canon: Cyberwoman
Ianto readjusts his tie, heart pounding as the elevator carries him down into the Hub.
(today, today, he's coming today)
He's scared for a moment that he'll be caught, that someone will notice how nervous he looks and know and everything will come crashing down around him. Today is a special day, a good day, but dangerous as well-- he's been planning it for weeks now, and there's always the chance that something might happen, that they'll all find out.
Ianto needn't have worried-- when he crosses the threshold he is greeted by the sounds of an energetic two-on-two basketball game. He stands behind the bars for a few minutes, puzzling out the teams as he waits on the doors to open. They're loud and clumsy and Ianto hopes they don't knock over or break any important equipment.
Owen and Gwen are together, their moves flashy and unorthodox. Owen tosses her the ball from the upper level-- Jack intercepts it and he and Tosh play keep-away for a few seconds, laughing, until Gwen recovers and throws it back to Owen who scores the final goal from his position above the net. The usual post-game banter is exchanged ("Of course, that was an illegal move." "Totally illegal!" "Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Losers.") as everyone gathers jackets and purses.
No one speaks to Ianto as they leave, or even seems to realize that he's there. Jack throws the basketball to him without looking, and the sudden silence is almost as deafening as the noise of the game.
As soon as the door hisses closed he's off and moving. He can't spare a single second-- there's too much to be done.
(today, today, he's coming today)
He's scared for a moment that he'll be caught, that someone will notice how nervous he looks and know and everything will come crashing down around him. Today is a special day, a good day, but dangerous as well-- he's been planning it for weeks now, and there's always the chance that something might happen, that they'll all find out.
Ianto needn't have worried-- when he crosses the threshold he is greeted by the sounds of an energetic two-on-two basketball game. He stands behind the bars for a few minutes, puzzling out the teams as he waits on the doors to open. They're loud and clumsy and Ianto hopes they don't knock over or break any important equipment.
Owen and Gwen are together, their moves flashy and unorthodox. Owen tosses her the ball from the upper level-- Jack intercepts it and he and Tosh play keep-away for a few seconds, laughing, until Gwen recovers and throws it back to Owen who scores the final goal from his position above the net. The usual post-game banter is exchanged ("Of course, that was an illegal move." "Totally illegal!" "Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Losers.") as everyone gathers jackets and purses.
No one speaks to Ianto as they leave, or even seems to realize that he's there. Jack throws the basketball to him without looking, and the sudden silence is almost as deafening as the noise of the game.
As soon as the door hisses closed he's off and moving. He can't spare a single second-- there's too much to be done.
no subject
"He's never seen a live rugby match!"
"I have other things to do with my time!"
"Rhys knows a bloke whose cousin works at the Millennium Stadium." Gwen announces, as they keep moving. "We should all go to the next home international."
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There's a sound of machinery clanking downstairs-- the door is opening. "Yeah, usual time," Ianto says quickly. "See you then." He makes his way downstairs, smiling at the white-haired old man with the metal case who has wandered into the Hub. "Good to see you again, sir. Are they looking after you at the hotel?"
Ianto comes to a stop in front of the doctor and bows. "Konnichiwa, Tanizaki-san."
Tanizaki mirrors the gesture and the greeting. "Konnichiwa." Ianto takes the man's case and leads him away from the main part of the Hub.
The sound of dripping water can be heard at this level, where the only lights are the reds and blues of emergency backups. The door at the end of the corridor is locked, and Ianto pulls the key from inside his jacket.
"I did all I could," Ianto says, not sure whether it's a warning or an apology. "I really did." He opens the door.
The room is dominated by a large metal framework, flanked by a respirator and monitors, with tubes and wires threaded throughout like wild vines. There is a table off to one side, on which a bowl of fruit, a picture, and a vase of flowers have been placed. In the middle of this mechanical web lies a person, a woman. Ianto flips a switch and the frame she lies on rotates, lifting her into a more upright position. Half of her body, maybe more than half, is bright, cold metal.
"My God!" says Tanizaki, not believing his own eyes. "It's not possible! One of them survived!"
Ianto steps forward and kisses the woman gently, on the lips. "This is Lisa."
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Ianto shakes his head, eyes never leaving Lisa's face. "It's just a reaction to the medication."
The doctor pulls out his glasses, puts them on so he can get a better look. "She's the only one left," he says, sounding shell-shocked. "Across the whole world." Then he smiles and shakes Ianto's hand. "Thank you!" he says. "Thank you so much. Bringing me here. I never thought..." he trails off, then moves past Ianto to get closer to the subject. "... to get my chance..." he continues, almost to himself, as he pulls out a penlight and shines it in her eyes. "To study... to work with... anything like this."
"Anyone," Ianto corrects. He's wary, protective-- he doesn't want Tanizaki to get too carried away or to forget that this isn't some zoo sample, that this is his Lisa.
"Tell me," Tanizaki says as he continues his inspection, "what happened?"
"She worked for Torchwood London," Ianto answers, focusing on reciting the facts so he won't have to relive the memories. "It was the end of the Canary Wharf battle. The Cybermen needed soldiers fast. They started upgrading whole bodies instead of transplanting brains, using Earth technology. Lisa was halfway through the process when the machinery shut down." Ianto takes her hand, whether in an effort to comfort her or comfort himself he doesn't know.
"You found her?" asks the doctor.
(He remembers fire and noise and blood and the screaming oh god the screaming and looking for Lisa not being able to find her and oh god please don't let them have gotten her then he hears her voice calling for him and he picks her up oh god she's so heavy he can't carry her so he drags her hauls her away all the time screaming for help someone please help but there's no one left alive to hear them call no one left alive)
"I pulled her out."
The doctor either doesn't hear or doesn't care. "Do you know the percentages?"
"The what?" Ianto asks, annoyed.
"Some elements have been augmented," Tanizaki explains. "Some are still human. Sensory capacity, for instance. Her breathing and hearing appears completely cybernetic. And yet..." he runs his hand over her stomach. "There's also bare flesh."
Ianto frowns deeply. He did not ask this man here to look at Lisa so he could drool over her, molest her while she sleeps. He's supposed to be a doctor.
"Perhaps 55% augmentation with 45% awaiting completion. Do you think?" the man continues, running his hands over Lisa's body. "Or perhaps, maybe 60/40. It's fascinating."
Ianto shakes his head, upset. "Can you make her human again?"
Tanizaki looks around the room again, or maybe for the first time. "You took parts from a Cyber-conversion unit and modified them into a life support for her. How did you know what to do?"
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Ianto stepped closer, hands resting on the edge of the conversion unit. “I thought you were resting. You should be resting.” Ianto frowned with worry, reaching up to adjust Lisa’s doses. “How’s the pain? Are the new doses working?”
Her eyes blinked open, turning her head to look at Ianto, cringing from the pain. “A little. Oh!” Lisa groans and pants, turning to look at Tanizaki. “Is this him?”
Ianto smiled. “I promised, didn’t I?”
“And you always keep your promises,” she said with a smile. Ianto reaches for her hand, causing her mind to wander. She returns to an old memory, of promises made in the past when promises still could be kept. She watches as Ianto nods his head, wishing things could be like that again, and knowing they probably won’t be.
“I would like to ask her some questions.” Lisa tried to nod, the move barely visible from the pain. “My name is Dr. Tanizaki. I specialize in Cybernetics. Your friend, Mr. Jones, asked me…”
“My boyfriend,” she stated, interrupting him.
“Yes. He asked me to come,” Tanizaki continued.
Lisa shared a smile with Ianto, watching as he never took his eyes off of her. “We agreed, together.”
”A few simple questions.” Dr. Tanizaki pulled out his PDA and began entering the information as he asked it. “What is your name?”
“Lisa Hallett.” Her gaze tears away from Ianto and stares straight ahead, as if concentrating just to find the answers he’s looking for.
“How old are you?” Tanizaki looks away from her, tapping some keys on his PDA.
“Twenty-six.”
Dr. Tanizaki looks back at Lisa, pausing in his typing. “What is the last thing you remember before coming here?”
Lisa’s eyes blink as she remembers the memory. In it, she’s screaming as Ianto drags her out of Torchwood One. He too is screaming for help, while she is screaming from the pain.
”Somebody! Anybody,” Ianto screams, but it’s a futile attempt. Nobody is coming to help them.
“Pain.” Lisa’s next words were choked out, hard to say. “I remember my body burning with pain.” A few tears slip down her cheek as she turned to look at Ianto. She would squeeze his hand tighter if she could, but even turning to look at him took a lot of her energy out of her.
Dr. Tanizaki turned to look at Ianto. “You said ... there was somewhere I could work upstairs?”
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"This first stage should enable her to breathe without the respirator," says the doctor as he gives her an injection. "Once her body functions without support, I can judge what work is needed."
Ianto circles the table again. "What if she's not ready to breathe on her own?"
"You must be prepared for her not to survive."
Ianto stops and looks at Tanizaki, anxiousness icing over into fear. Not survive? She can't not survive, not here, not after all this.
The old man takes off his glasses and fixes Ianto with a level gaze. "Sometimes... in order to save what we love--" here he glances as Lisa-- "we have to risk losing it."
He presses a button on his laptop and one of Lisa's monitors goes wild. Tanizaki rushes over to her and checks her pupils-- Ianto sees one of the screens has flatlined. "She's not strong enough!"
Tanizaki shrugs him off. "Let me do my work!"
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Everyone dissolves into laughter, including Jack at the memory. That had been one hilarious case, although the girl's family hadn't been so entertained. Some people, no sense of humour. He's just contemplating maybe adding vodka to his current tonic water, when Tosh's pager goes off. She checks it, and look up at him.
"UFO sighting over Cardigan Bay. Seven calls to the emergency services."
Owen sigh exaggeratedly. "Oh... Can we at least finish our drinks, please?"
"Sure," says Jack, getting to his feet. "Take ten seconds."
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"If she dies because of you..."
His words are cut off by Lisa beside him on the table. Suddenly, her eyes open and she's gasping for breath. Her head begins to shift as she tries to take in everything around her.
"Ianto?"
"Yes, I'm here! She's breathing!" Ianto briefly looked back to Tanizaki. "It worked!"
Her mind tries to register everything. Connection. She's not connected to the machine anymore. It's as if she can feel everything more closely. The beeping is slower now too, back to a regular pattern.
"Why aren't I connected?" Lisa gazed up at Ianto, wanting so badly to understand what's going on.
"You're alive!" Ianto leans down to kiss her. She returns the kiss, if perhaps a little dazed. "He kept you alive!"
She understands. Tearing her gaze from Ianto to the doctor, her eyes widen a little, full of gratefulness and love. "Thank you," she pants, trying to say everything she wants to say with those two little words.
"This is only the start."
There's another beeping noise, different than before. A quicker beep with a quieter noise. Whatever it is, it hurts Lisa's ears, causing her to flinch a little. Ianto steps away from her, going over to the computer. Although she can't see what he's doing, she hears the taps on the keyboard and the urgency in his voice.
"We've gotta move. Quickly."
Coming back to her side, Ianto removes the tubing from Lisa as the doctor gathers the machinery. Helping her into a sitting position, Lisa wraps an arm around his shoulders as he grabs her. She can feel the love, but she needs to do this for herself. She needs to be independent again. It's been too long for her like this.
"I'll walk," she urges.
"You've only just woken up. You can't."
She would roll her eyes at him if she could, but somehow she's not certain she could do it. As if she isn't sure she would remember how. Her eyes find his and she looks at him, begging him with her eyes.
"I want to walk! Please."
Ianto nods his head and helps her to stand, Tanizaki moving to stand on the other side of her for support. Reluctantly, she shifts away from Ianto, letting the other man help her. Still, it is better than being carried, she muses.
"Help her downstairs. I'll clear up here."
As Ianto moves away, Lisa lets Tanizaki lead here twoard the stares. It's only a few steps, but she can feels it down to her toes, limping with each step. She turns and looks back at Ianto, her face an odd mix of confusion and happiness.
"I'm alive."
They share a look, just for a moment. She never thought she would be like this again, alive, with him. She'd do more than kiss him, if she could, but time and people are a factor that have to be dealt with. She knows this. Turning away, she lets Tanizaki lead her toward the stairs.
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Owen shoots her down right away. "And all I'm saying is no!"
"Why not?"
"Look, I've shared cars with women before," he says, not-so patiently. "I know what'll happen. There'll be an emergency, we're all raring to go, I jump in, what do I find? Seat's in the wrong position, the rear view mirror's out of line and the steering wheel's in my crotch. Time it takes to sort it all out, aliens'll have taken Newport."
Jack laughs and the group continues towards the entrance, unaware that Ianto and the scientist are below their feet, helping a cyberwoman into hiding.
no subject
"What about a rota? Different people drive on different days."
Jack gives her a look. "We're a secret organisation, hunting alien technology from an underground base. And you want a rota for who drives?"
The secret door opens, and Jack goes for it, the others following. Gwen sighs. "Just trying to help!"
She runs through the door after them right as it begins to swing shut. Gosh. So unappreciative!
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He clears up Tanizaki's equipment then comes back to help the old man carry her back downstairs. Each man drapes a metal arm over his shoulder, three people trying to walk as one-- she's heavy and awkward, and it would be easier if she weren't also trying to help.
Ianto leaves them in the basement, knowing he's running out of time. "As soon as they're gone, I'll be down," he promises, then dashes back upstairs.
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"Tosh, call up the radar within a fifty-mile radius of the Bay for the last six hours," he says, as the all split off to their respective workstations. Ineffective and unprofessional they may occasionally be, due to the incredible variation in cases they get, but they damn well know the initial response routine.
"Gwen, check with that man - Neil, I think his name was, voice like Sean Connery - at Jodrell Bank. See if they picked up any chatter around the time of the sightings. Owen, access the airspace provision over Cardigan Bay, also any RAF flight plans, see if it's just a case of mistaken identity."
He swings himself into his seat and logs on. Let's do this. Whatever it is.
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"Take it slowly. You're still very weak. This way," he murmured.
As they walked, Lisa's mind began to roam, a million thoughts running through her. It wasn't just her thoughts anymore, either, but those of the cyberunit that was who she was now. Must upgrade. Must upgrade or delete. Upgrading will make him better.
Upon reaching the table, he turns. She watches as he helps her back on the table, or attempts to do so. Before he can finish, she grabs Tanizaki by the throat, her eyes cold and cruel. His feet dangle above the floor as she lifts him, her hand tightening on his neck. Her face is impassive as the life slowly seeps out of his body. Soon, his kicking stops.
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Ianto moves slowly, waiting to see if they'll say anything, wondering if they suspect. Gwen's on the phone, act normal act normal act--
"Ianto!" He freezes, and there's a moment of blind panic where he can't move, can't turn around, can't look at anyone because Jack knows oh god he knows and it's all going to come crashing dow--
"Would you work some coffee magic?" Ianto turns around, sure he's misheard. But Jack puts his hands together, begging pretty please... no, Jack doesn't know. No one knows. It almost makes Ianto smile.
Silently, because he still doesn't trust himself to say anything lest he give the game away, he heads upstairs to make the coffee.
no subject
With a loud snapping noise, the cold metal restraints clamp around his wrists, thighs, and ankle, barring any possible movement from him. The table stills and the final clamp secures his head to the table.
"Lisa! Let me go!"
For a moment, she watches him, as if contemplating something. When she finally moves, it is to lean forward, her voice different now. The cyber conversion is almost complete now, her voice sounding more mechanical and less human. "I can help you. The human race is weak. I can make you strong."
Her body turns and her hand raises, pressing a button on the side of the machine. Suddenly the room is alight, electrical pulses moving along the table, zapping him. His screams are loud, but the machine is louder, drowning him out. She doubts others will be able to hear him down here.
Around them, the lights begin to flicker as the machine practically drains the power, sucking it in and feeding off of it. The unit on the ceiling opens and a mechanical cyber arm begins to lower. It is a conversion device, with saws and pinchers.
Lisa moves to the side of the machine, her face impassive as Tanizaki continues to scream. Around her, there is an eerie glow as the lights continue to dim on and off.
Behind her, the door slams.
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Jack orders Tosh to do a system diagnostic. "Actually," Ianto breaks in, "We've been having generator problems all evening. I was down there checking earlier. Couple of bits of cabling have come loose." He's no good at lying, and it shows. "I thought I'd fixed it."
Everyone looks at him, and Ianto wonders if the lie is written in neon lights on his forehead. "Let me have another look."
Jack seems content to humor him. "Fine. Go check."
"Want some help?" asks Gwen. Ianto shakes his head, heading back downstairs at a run. "It's fine."
The lights haven't stopped flickering. "You've got to shut down the power!" Ianto yells as he bursts through the door. He doesn't even check what's going on in the rest of the room, not until he's flipped the main switch and stopped whatever it is that's causing the drain.
When he does look, he wishes he hadn't. Tanizaki is lying on the floor, and there's blood everywhere. "Oh, God. Oh my God! What happened?"
Lisa's voice is even. "His upgrade failed."
There's a giant cog where the doctor's left eye should be. Ianto can't stop staring at it, even as he kneels to check for a pulse. "Was it an accident?" Fear wrenches at him again, turns his next words into a plea. "Tell me you didn't do this."
"I wanted to repay him for helping me," comes her flat response. "By removing the weaknesses of his humanity."
"What have you done?" he asks, trying not to give in to hysteria as he rises to face her. "You've killed an innocent man!"
"It's all right," she says, but he doesn't listen. Ianto's shouting now, gripping her arms, arms that are softness wrapped in steel. "It's not all right! They're gonna come looking for me in a minute. If they see the body, if they find out what we've been doing ..." He begins pacing, trying to figure out what to do next.
"I can deal with them," Lisa insists.
"Don't you go near them!" he screams. He turns around, trying to gather his thoughts. A few seconds later, his voice is calmer. "You didn't mean to do this. Something's happened to your mind." The hysteria wells up again when he turns to look at her but he swallows it back. "Um... just, um... Some kind of side effect from this whole process. It's post-traumatic. You didn't mean to..." he trails off. It's too much, he can't think. "You've ruined everything now!" he screams at her again, pushing Lisa so hard she stumbles back.
Ianto turns away again, tries to calm down. "How hard have we had to work to keep you alive?" he asks, putting his hands at either side of her neck. It's an intimate gesture, almost an apology. "And now you do this."
Their foreheads touch, and Ianto tries to think. "I need you to stay in here," he says finally, breaking away. "Rest. Don't come out unless I tell you. This can't happen again, Lisa. If you harm anyone else I'll..."
"Yes?" she says, with a touch of what might be curiosity but is certainly not fear. "What will you do?"
Ianto can't bring himself to answer, so he changes the subject. "Okay, the body. Got to deal with the body."
This is my fault. I'm responsible for this. It's not the first time he's had to hide a body for Torchwood, but this is someone he knew. Someone he brought here.
He picks Tanizaki up by his armpits and drags him through the door. "I'll hide the body," he says. "Everything's going to be okay."
He shuts the door behind him, and doesn't see Lisa resetting the table.
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"That's a UFO?"
Jack grins in relief, and no little amusement as the light pattern flashes across again.
"Arkan leisure crawler, first generation," he says. "Collectors' item, don't see many of those around these days. Tosh, send a polite message saying it's great to see them, but could they please get the hell out of our atmosphere, they're spooking the locals."
Something quick and easy, for a change. How nice!
"Done!" says Tosh brightly, evidently as happy as he is to have a relatively harmless visitor stop by, as their newest recruit looks on in astonishment.
"Shouldn't we be apprehending it? Investigating it?" she asks tentatively.
Jack just snorts. "Oh, please. You interrogate an Arkan, you'll be in there for a month, and that's just the first question. They are so boring. Besides, they're mostly made of liquid. The cells would be a mess."
And that's when the lights flicker on and off again. Jack sighs and keys for Ianto over his wrist comm.
"Ianto, we've got another dose of darkness. You found anything?"
There's nothing, just the lights juddering like crazy, and for the first time, Jack feels a stab of worry, and codes for Ianto's earpiece again.
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He hears the static crackle of someone paging him through the comm, but he's too busy to answer.
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"Power's draining to the storage room at the bottom of the building. Looking for human heat signals," she says, bringing up a plan of the hub. "We've got..."
"Two signals," Owen finishes. looking over her shoulder.
"So assuming one's Ianto..."
"Who's the other?" Gwen cut's in.
"I'm thinking we're under attack," Jack says starting to move away from the work station. "Security's been breached. Assume battle protocols!"
By now he's running towards the weapons store.
"But that impossible!" Tosh says, running after him with Owen and Gwen. "Nobody can get in without triggering seven different alarms!" She knows. She set most of them up herself.
"Yeah, well it looks like our system needs to be upgraded."
Jack hands out weapons and, cocking his gun, Owen volunteers to go and find Ianto. And of course Gwen offers to go with him. Somehow, even in the current situation, Tosh manages to be bitter about the fact that Gwen offered before she could.
...
So NOT the time, Sato.
"Keep your comms open at all times," Jack orders as they finish checking their weapons. "Any doubts, shoot first. Priority is to find Ianto."
no subject
Everything's wrong.
But Ianto knows the Hub better than anyone and know where he can hide the body until he can deal with it all. Through all the lights and noise he drags Tanizaki's body to a storage room and covers him with a tarp.
He pauses a moment, looking into the man's face. So much hope, and so much knowledge.
He whispers, "I'm sorry," and covers Tanizaki's face.
He gets up and goes back out to find Lisa.
no subject
"Progress report?" he asks.
Owen's voice comes through. "Signs of activity at the eastern end of the main corridor."
The white noise is increasing, and Jack frowns. "We're losing your comm signals."
"We're going in to have a look," says Gwen, and then the transmission cuts out. He sighs, and heads over to Toshiko's station to look over her shoulder.
"Whatever that power source is, it's interfering with the comms," she says, as the monitors mournfully report 50% power loss.
"Gwen, Owen?" Nothing. "Damn! Can we get them back?"
"Trying other channels," she continues focused on her work, then turns back to him. "There's something else you need to see. I've gone back through our internal CCTV footage for the last couple of hours. Someone's tried to remove the images from our system."
IMAGE DELETED notifications start flashing up as she runs through the files. Jack glares at the screen. "See, now I'm starting to get a little peeved," he says. "These people come into my house, they start using my things..."
"I've dug into the system memory," Tosh says, possibly just to placate him, but then an image flashes up on the screen, of Ianto and a man who is most definitely not a member of staff. The image of Ianto takes the man's case and leads him deeper into the hub. Jack stares for a second, anger and incomprehension seething for a moment before he gets it under control again and demands,
"What the hell's going on here?!"
no subject
Above them, Jack's not getting any of it. "Gwen? Owen? Can you hear me?"
"No comms," Gwen tells Owen, and he nods in response.
"We're on our own, then."
Looking through the window in the door, he can't see much of anything. Too many flashing lights through the dirty window. There's some sort of table connected to wires, but the only thing he can tell is that it definitely doesn't belong in their basement.
"What the hell is going on?"
"What's the matter?" Gwen asks.
"I can't see well enough. But there's something in there. Some kind of operating table." He indicates the door. "Get the bolts."
They push back the locks on the door, then look at each other.
"Okay?"
"Yeah," he responds, stepping back and aiming his gun at the door.
"Okay, one, two ..." He kicks the door open before he gets to three and they both step inside quickly, shining their lights around the room. The beams bounce off the equipment, and Owen has to stop himself from taking a step back when he sees what's really inside the room.
"No! No, no, no, no!"
"What the hell is it?!"
"It's wrong. It's beyond wrong. It shouldn't be here! Turn the thing off! Turn it off!" he shouts at her.
The flashing lights and alarms turn off when she hits the buttons, and back in the Hub the automatic power is resuming.
"Internal levels are being restored," Tosh says to Jack, who immediately tries to raise Gwen and Owen on the comms once more.
"These things brought down Torchwood One," Owen hisses to Gwen over the crackling of the comms. "But they were all destroyed. Why is there one in our bloody basement?!"
"Just tell me what it does!"
"It's the remnants of a conversion unit. This machinery turns humans into Cybermen."
The crackling intensifies, and then Jack's voice comes through. "If I don't hear something within thirty seconds, I'm coming down there!"
"Jack, it's Gwen. The comms dropped out. We're back online now."
"Any sign of Ianto?"
"No. But we have found parts of a Cyber-conversion unit. Fully powered up and working."
"This is no time to be kidding around, Owen."
"I'm deadly serious," he whispers. "I dunno why it's here, or how it got here. But that's what's draining our power." He waits for a response. "Jack? You there?"
"I want you two back up here immediately," Jack commands.
Owen protests, "We still haven't --"
And then everything goes black.
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Jack grabs his gun out of its holster, checking its loaded almost without thinking as he turns to Toshiko. "If you don't hear from me within fifteen minutes, activate total shutdown procedures and get yourself to safety," he says, voice grim, and starts downwards.
"But I can't just leave you all here!" she protests, looking small and frightened behind her workstation.
"If there's a Cyberman in this building," he says, as calmly as he can, "We need a last line of defense. Just make sure it never gets to the outside world!"
Then he runs for it, unwilling to waste another second which could cost Owen and Gwen their lives.
no subject
Lisa reaches out and whacks the gun out of Gwen's hand, and grabs her by the neck. Gwen chokes, clutching at the fingers as they haul her up off the ground. She begins to manuever Gwen backwards, toward the Cyberman conversion device.
"Let me go!" Gwen chokes out, her voice panicked as she kicks.
Lisa's monotonous voice answers her: "Do not struggle. You will be like me."
That? Is not something Gwen wants to be. DO NOT WANT. Her back touches the table and she's fastened to it before it flips back. Lisa's hand leaves Gwen's neck and Gwen watches in wide-eyed fear as her head is secured...and a current runs through the table.
Above her head are sharp objects and they terrify her. She screams.
Jack bursts in (a handsome hero, Gwen vaguely thinks before she's back to freaking out) and levels his gun. "Throw down any weapons, put your hands up and turn and face me!"
Lisa turns. And starts towards him. Jack can't believe what he's seeing...she's a woman! That's not supposed to happen!
"Owen! Jack!" Gwen shrieks, fighting against her bonds futily. She screams again.
Jack aims his gun and fires, but at the last moment, Ianto knocks him out of the way, making the shot go wild. "She doesn't know what she's doing!"
Jack pushes Ianto. "You're fighting the wrong guy!"
The conversion chamber opens above Gwen and she keeps screaming. "Get me out of here! Someone, please!"
Jack and Ianto take off towards the controls as Gwen continues to yell "Switch it off! Switch it off!!"
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Jack grabs for the comm link. "Toshiko, cut all power in the base!"
Tosh is still upstairs at the controls. "I do that, the base goes into lockdown! We'll be trapped."
But desperate times call for desperate measures. "Just do it!" Jack orders as Gwen screams again, her eyes fixed on the relentless approach of the machine.
The sound of the newbie's scream echoes through the commlink, deciding Toshiko as much as Jack's order does. She races to the main power switch, yanking the lever downwards, and with a sound like a sigh of relief the machines switch off as the doors swish closed.
All the doors... in all of Torchwood.
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"Gwen?"
"I'm fine," she says shakily. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Sort of. Jack, please get me out of here!"
"It's all right," he assures her, completely untruthfully. There's a Cyberman in Cardiff, in his base, one team member out of commission, one trapped in a machine, one who's just sealed them all in with it, and one who is looking far too guilty for Jack's peace of mind.
"Where is she?" Gwen asks, determinedly calmly. "Where did she go? Please tell me you got her!"
Jack looks at Ianto, gaze cold. "Stand guard by the door." The boy nods, and reaches for a torch. He pauses as he passes Gwen.
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry," he tells her quietly, and goes to the door.
"Let's just get out of here," Jack says before he says anything angrier, eyeing the controls, then the mechanism overhead. He fiddles with his wrist strap controls for a moment until the unit responds, headclamps releasing Gwen as the table tilts back up.
~~~
Ianto leads the group back through the hallway, with Jack and Gwen following behind, Jack carrying Owen slung over his shoulders. They make it nearly to the doorway at the end when Ianto pauses, and Jack eyes him cautiously.
"Clear?"
"Clear," Ianto says, and continues.
It's only a few moments later that Lisa steps out and blocks their way out. Gwen draws in her breath with a sharp hiss. "Oh, God, there she is. What is she?"
"Some form of Cyberman," Jacks answers her grimly, attempting to hold his gun level at the... thing without dropping Owen. "They're us, upgraded. Humans with emotions removed, created on a parallel world and supposedly destroyed on this one."
"What are we gonna do?" she whispers.
"I don't know."
The question is settled for them when Lisa steps away and disappears from view. The three stand, frozen for a moment, unsure what just happened.
"She's gone," Ianto says.
In answer, Jack presses his gun against the younger man's temple, and cocks it with a click.
"Get us back to the Hub," he bites out.
Gwen looks as if she might grab his arm, then seems to think better of it at the look of fury on his face. "Jack, what are you doing?!"
"Resisting the urge to shoot," he answers, and pushes Ianto forward with the muzzle. Slowly and tensely, they make for the hub.
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"Tosh," Jack orders as he puts Owen on the couch, "get everything from the weapons room. Fast as you can."
"It's locked down, there's no manual override," Tosh protests as she comes to them with a torch.
"Just open the store!" Jack barks and Toshiko runs to the weapons locker.
That dealt with, Jack turns to Ianto. "On your knees! Hands above your head!"
Ianto obeys, expressionless.
"Jack, for God's sake! What are you doing?!" Tosh cries
"Tosh! I gave you an order! Gwen, help her!" He leans in closer, the gun still in Ianto's face. "Did you know that thing was down there?"
"I put her there."
Jack grabs Ianto by the hair, pressing the barrel against his temple. "You hid a Cyberman within Torchwood?! And you didn't tell us? What else are you keeping from us?"
Ianto looks up at him, defiance and grief in his face. "Like you care. I clear up your shit. No questions asked and that's the way you like it. When did you last ask me anything about my life?"
At this Jack lowers his gun. There's a loud click as he uncocks the hammer.
Ianto lowers his eyes. "Her name's Lisa. She's my girlfriend."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Gwen interjects. "We could have helped you."
"Torchwood exists to destroy alien threats," Ianto says impatiently. "Why would I tell you about her?"
"A little loyalty, perhaps?" Owen calls out, holding his injured neck.
"My loyalty's to her! She worked for Torchwood. She was caught up in battle. I owe it to Lisa--we owe it to her--to find a cure." He's begging to them now--for understanding, for support.
"Ianto," Jack says, "you have to believe me. There is no cure. There never will be. Those who are converted stay that way. Your girlfriend will not be the exception."
"You can't know that for sure," Ianto protests, a man still clinging to hope.
"Look," says Jack, "you need to know what's happening here. Because this is where these things start. Small decisions that become mass slaughter. These creatures regain a foothold by exploiting human weakness. Then they take a base. Rebuild their forces. And before you know it, the Cyber race is spreading out across the universe, erasing worlds, assimilating populations. All because of the tiny beginnings here. We need to stop her ... together!"
Ianto finally gets to his feet and lowers his arms. "You're not listening to me! The conversion was never completed!"
"She already tried to kill Gwen! 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." His voice breaks. "Can you understand that, Jack? Haven't you ever loved anyone?"
There is the briefest of pauses before Jack steps in close to him and says, "You need to figure out whose side you're on here. Because if you don't know ... you're not going to make it out of this alive." He turns away.
Owen says, "There's no way this weapons store's gonna open."
"It's going to take six hours for the power to come back online," Toshiko adds.
"Let me talk to her," Ianto pleads. "I can still save her. Save all of us. She's not a monster."
Which is, of course, the moment Lisa chooses to step back into the hub, her boots echoing on the cement floor.
"Ianto!" Gwen calls to him, but Ianto ignores her as he moves closer to Lisa.
"Lisa..."
Lisa turns and looks at Ianto, her machinery grinding.
He opens his hands and says simply, "It's me."
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"Ssh," Jack hissed.
Lisa looked around the hub, as if surveying her surroundings, taking stock of the Hub. “The army will be rebuilt from here. This building is suitable,” she comments. Her voice sounds eerily more mechanical than human.
“Who are you,” Jack asks.
She turns to look at him. “Human point two.”
“No! Lisa,” Ianto begs.
“So how come you look like human point one,” Jack asks her. He doesn’t smile as he speaks to her.
She blinks, not comprehending the question. “I do not understand.”
“Look at yourself. Go ahead,” Jack says.
Slowly, Lisa turns around, looking at her reflection in the metal. She stares at herself, blinking, hearing Ianto’s voice behind her.
“Remember, Lisa. Remember who you are,” Ianto pleaded with her.
“The upgrade is incomplete,” she murmured, almost as if voicing a question.
Ianto slowly moves closer to her. “You’re still human.”
“I am ... disgusting. I have ... I am ... wrong.” Her own voice starts to break, staring at herself in the reflection.
“We can help you.”
“I must start again. Upgrade properly.”
Ianto moves closer still. “For God's sake! Have you heard yourself? Lisa, please. I brought you here to heal you. So we could be together.”
His words seem to strike a chord with her. She turns toward him, facing him now.
“Together. Yes. Transplant my brain into your body. The two of us ... together. Fused. We'll be one complete person. Isn't that what love is?”
“No,” he says, sadly, giving a slow shake of his head.
She shook her head at Ianto. “Then we are not compatible.”
Reaching forward, she grabs him by his neck, raising him and throwing him across the water running through the hub. She watches as Ianto lands roughly on the concrete on the other side. Jack raises his gun at her. She retaliates, firing bolts of electricity at his gun.
“Argh,” Jack cries out, dropping the gun. “Code Nine maneuvers. Go!”
Toshiko and Owen move. Gwen is too scared to at first.
“Gwen,” Jack cries out.
Gwen still doesn’t move. Lisa turns and takes advantage, heading for her.
“Gwen! Get out of there,” he yells.
She’s nearly upon Gwen when Owen distracts her.
“Lisa,” Owen yells, causing her to stop and look up at him. “What are you waiting for?”
“Gwen,” Jack yells again.
This time he gets her attention. Gwen turns and runs toward Jack, Owen running up the second floor stairs and alongside the hub.
Lisa’s eyes narrow, watching Owen. “Run. We all ran.”
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"She's coming after us," Gwen says looking out through the glass door of the conference room.
"There's a surprise," Owen retorts, taking a second to get his breath back.
"Could you be any less helpful?"
"Oi! I just helped you escape!"
"Shut up, both of you!" Before the bickering can descend into a full scale
lovers tiffargument, Jack interrupts the two of them."Okay, now, this is a fight to the death. We do whatever is necessary to destroy her. Forget what Ianto said. That thing is not human. Clear?"
Tosh nods her agreement and Jack places something on the conference table in front of her.
"What's this?" she asks, picking it up.
"Something Suzie scavenged last year," he explains. "She claimed that it could open any lock in 45 seconds. I want you out the exit gates up the emergency stairs to reception."
"She'll never open that door without power! It weighs a ton!" Owen says to Jack.
"Anyway," Tosh interjects, "I'm not leaving you here!" Nervous laughter can't help but creep into her voice. It's some kind of sick joke, surely, to expect her to leave her colleagues - her friends - to die at the hands of that... cyberwoman. Tosh went to Canary Wharf after the battle. She saw firsthand what those things did to their victims.
"Just do as I say! All of you!" Jack shouts at them. Tosh has rarely - if ever - seen the usually laid back Captain look this frazzled.
"Once in reception ... panel, next to the desk, pull it out," he tells Tosh as he grabs two rods - emergency generators by the looks of them. He hands them to Tosh. "Take circuit 357 from the main system and patch it to these. There should be enough power in there for what we need. Once the main circuit goes live, get out. Meet us by the water tower."
Tosh hesitates for a split second, still not wanting to leave them to face that thing without her help.
"GO!" Jack shouts at her, pointing towards the exit.
Tosh runs.
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"Uh... autopsy room. There should be some lethal equipment there," Owen says with a nod.
Gwen nods, still looking at him. "What are you gonna do?"
"Buy you some time. GO!" Jack yells, and they run. The... cyberwoman turns to follow them, and he advances, waving an arm.
"Hey! Lisa!" he tries first, which at least gets her attention. "It is Lisa, isn't it?" he continues, tone taunting, but eyes watchful. If there's even the slightest chance Ianto is right, and she reacts to her name with anything other than murderous intent... he has no idea what he'll do. But it's worth a try. "You've been hiding in my basement," he says, trying for a matter-of-fact tone as she approaches, face devoid of any emotion. "That's okay. Draining my power, I can live with that... but now you're starting to hurt my friends. This is gonna stop!"
She's getting close when Jack breaks and runs out of the conference room and heads back down the steps leading to the main hub, drawing her into a more open area where he can easily.
Out of the corner of his eye as he runs down the stairs, he sees Toshiko holding the alien device against the doors, and waiting for it to take hold.
Come on, he unknowingly echoes her as he turns to see that the cyberwoman has followed him down, close behind.
"This building belongs to me now," she says, voice recognisably female, but impossibly flat and cold. "You will all be deleted."
So much for that hope, then. Jack steps in front of her, and she turns mechanically to look at him. "I'm sorry for what they did to you. But this ends here," he says, and fails to get another word out before she grabs him by the shoulder with crushing strength, and electricity arcs agonizingly through his body. His scream drowns out Gwen's cry from his ears before he mercifully blacks out.
Lisa lets go of the Captain abruptly, and he drops limply to the floor. Everyone in the base, including the cyberwoman, stare for a moment, until the moment is broken by the quiet beep of Toshiko's machine opening the door. She dives out.
Captain Jack draws breath with a shudder, blinking hard. He only seems to have lost a few seconds this time. Trying not to look too disoriented, he stands up, fixing the back of Lisa's head with a glare.
"How did he survive that?" Owen mutters, and let's hope he doesn't continue to think along those lines...
"Is that all you got?" Jack spits out, calling the cyberwoman's attention right back to him. "I'm not so easily deleted."
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“We can’t help him,” Owen calls out.
He heads out of the hub towards the autopsy. In the hub, Gwen lingers, watching Jack and Ianto a moment before she turns to follow Owen.
Meanwhile, Toshiko still hadn’t left. Lisa turned and watches her, between the two doors. While Tosh puts the device against the outer door lock, Lisa started to head towards her. The door beeps, unlocking it.
With each step, Lisa is nearly toward the door at this point. Tosh turns and uses all her strength against the outer door, getting it to start to roll open. Just as Lisa reaches the door, yanking them open, Tosh slips through the crack and pushes the door closed.
Lisa stepped up, climbing toward the outer door. She’s closer now, closing in. Tosh pushes the door closed, sealing it. Turning, she leans back against the now closed door, panting to catch her breath.
With a loud crash, a fist breaks through the small window next to Tosh’s head, reaching for her. Startled, she gasps and backs away, running up the stairs to the store above.
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"Shit!" she hisses, trying to keep her voice low, as Lisa turns and heads toward them. "Is there another exit?"
"No!" Owen says back, tight-lipped. "We're trapped." He opens one of the storage drawers between them. "Get in," he tells her.
Gwen stares. "No way!"
"Lie on top of me and it'll take us both," he continues, entirely reasonable - just as if he isn't suggesting the climb into a morgue storage drawer together.
"I'm not laying on top of you!" she insists.
"I'm not saying it's a brilliant idea, but it's the only one we've got!"
Outside, Lisa is climbing up the stairs to the second floor. They can hear her feet clanking. Below her, Jack and Ianto lie unconscious on the floor.
Just before Lisa reaches the second floor, the morgue cabinet door closes. She looks about, and heads closer towards cold storage.
Gwen lies on top of Owen in the cabinet, trying not to breathe too loudly, listening to every sound outside as Lisa approaches, clanking footsteps even and mechanical. It seems to take an eternity, but evertually they hear Lisa continue forwards and head all the way past them and into cold storage.
As quietly as she can, looking awkwardly down at Owen's face, just a few centimetres from hers, Gwen whispers, "What do we do?"
Perhaps in response, perhaps jus because, Owen grabs Gwen and kisses her. Gwen stiffens, shocked, then melts against him, because she can't exactly walk off, so why not?
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He turns, eyes finally focusing and sees Ianto lying on the ground near him. He isn't moving. Jack's hands move almost of their own accord to pick the boy up out of the water, feeling the weight of an empty shell against his body and cradles it against him, feeling his throat and skin. There's a pulse there somewhere. He glances behind him as he hears Lisa's heavy footsteps somewhere above. There' not much time, but... He pats at the side of Ianto's face, trying to get him to wake up. There's barely a storring, and desperately Jack leans in to kiss him, willing heat and life into his limp body - not even sure why, only knowing that he doesn't want Ianto to die.
In spite of everything, he wants him to live. He can hear Lisa's slow, mechanical footsteps a little way away, searching for the others, but all that matter for now is forcing life into the stupid, lost boy in his arms.
And then there's a gasp against his lips, and the body jerks with awareness. Jack pulls back hastily.
"Ssh!" he insists urgently, and tugs him up off the soaked floor.
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Her mobile goes off. Shit. Jumbled whispers of "Where is it, hurry please" come from the both of them before Owen finally fishes her phone out of her back pocket.
He hands it to Gwen, and she's so terrified that she drops it as the door opens. Owen tells her to turn it off as they crawl out of the freezer unit.
Gwen almost cannot breathe. She's so scared and panting as Lisa comes round at them. She could bloody kill Rhys just now for calling. Lisa stares at Gwen, moving towards her faster.
Owen throws an arm in front of Gwen. "Don't you touch her."
He grabs a screwdriver and when Lisa gets too close, he jabs it in her stomach. The Cyberwoman collapses.
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Lisa falls back against the wall and slumps against it. Gwen and Owen watch her, panting, hardly believing they're out of danger.
"What the hell was that?" Gwen says.
"What?"
"Snogging me!"
"Last kiss for the condemned man! Little embarrassing given we haven't been killed." He sees her disbelieving look. "What?! It's not like I fancy you or anything."
"I was on top of you. I could feel your hard-on."
"Yeah, well, you didn't exactly struggle, did you?"
Ianto runs down the stairs and knees in front of Lisa, touching her wounded belly.
"It was kill or be killed," Owen says quickly.
"Owen's right. There was no choice."
Ianto is still gasping for breath, looking at his lover in disbelief. He stumbles to his feet when her eyes open.
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They finally run, as Lisa gets to her feet, clattering down the stairs to meet a remarkably living Jack.
"You should be dead," Owen says, almost accusingly.
Jack simply shrugs. "I'm the stubborn type." He grabs a blowtorch and lights it, before seeing a squeeze bottle on the desktop, and grabbing that, too. Lisa advances toward them, cold and determined, and he brandishes his improvised weapons and prays this works. "Get behind me!" he tells the other three. She pauses, but doesn't exactly look like she's about to run.
"That's right. Stay back," he grins, extending the blue flame slightly closer to her. "This'll at least give you heartburn."
"The power will run out," she replies in a matter-of-fact tone. "I can wait."
She probably can, if Jack's one, wild, improbably plan doesn't work out, he thinks.
"Jack, help her. Give her a chance to surrender..." Ianto says, and no matter how loving a boyfriend he may be, he is obviously concussed.
Behind him, Owen and Gwen hold him back from starting forward.
"Have you not seen what she's done?" Owen asks.
"Let her stay in the cells! We have to reverse the process!"
"I've told you!" Jack interrupts, barely holding onto his temper. "We're past that! Hold him back!"
"What are you gonna do?" Gwen asks him uncertainly, but obeys.
"Don't ask questions. Just get him on there and hold him!
They push Ianto back to the concrete slab that doubles as a lift when they actually have power to the hub, keeping a firm hold on him. Jack abruptly squeezes the bottle, squirting the contents onto Lisa, who seems mildly annoyed, but mostly nonplussed.
"...What is that stuff?" Gwen asks, sounding as if she really doesn't want to know, but can't stop herself asking.
"Kind of a barbecue sauce. It helps it identify its food."
"Help what identify its food?!"
Jack ignores her, instead turning the blowtorch off and putting it hastily down before jumping up onto the lift with the others before Lisa can recover from her confusion. He glances at Ianto, almost ashamed.
"I'm sorry," he says, and presses a certain combination into his wrist strap, causing an answering screech from high above.
"Come on Tosh, hurry up," he mutters as the Cyberwoman begins to advance.
Ianto's eyes widen as he realises that Jack is entirely serious. "You'll kill her!" he shouts after a second, voice anguished, and he tugs against Gwen and Owen's restraining hands, just as the pterodactyl flies out of the pipe opening near the ceiling. It swoops down, straight for Lisa. Ianto can't get free, but continues yelling at Jack, desperate.
"Let me go! Let me help her!"
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Below, the invisible lift stone is still rising. "Hold him still!" Jack shouts as Ianto struggles against Owen and Gwen's grip and screams, "No!"
Toshiko checks her power cells and opens the outside door to find the others.
Down in the hub, the pterodactyl is attacking Lisa. Lisa fights back, screaming her terrible metallic scream.
"Call it off her!" Ianto pleads. "You can do that! Have some fucking mercy!" But still the lift stone continues to rise and the pterodactyl and the cyberwoman continue their struggle. Ianto keeps screaming as the lift trapdoor opens and the lift carries them up to the street.
Once they're at street level Jack steps off, and Gwen and Owen release Ianto. Tosh runs to them, laughing and sobbing with relief.
"It worked!" She looks around. "What happened to ... ?"
Jack shakes his head and brushes the question aside. "No," he says, panting.
Ianto stands with his back to them, quietly sobbing, and then turns to them and punches Jack in the face. "You could have saved her!"
Gwen pulls Ianto away, holding him back while Jack cries out in pain and Ianto continues shouting. "You're worse than anything locked up down there! One day, I'll have the chance to save you ... and I'll watch you suffer and die."
"It was the only thing that would stop her!" Jack says harshly, Owen holding him back, Gwen in front of Ianto.
"Listen," Toshiko says, "when I was at reception, I managed to trip the lockdown timer. The power should be coming back on any second. We can get back in."
Ianto doesn't pause to look--he simply runs back to Torchwood.
"Ianto!" Jack shouts, and they all take off after him.
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“Pizza!”
A loud buzzer sound goes off as the door unlatches, allowing her to let herself into the shop.
The interior of the tourist shop looks as it always does, immaculate and neat. The girl, Annie, looks around the shop with a confused look on her face.
“Ianto,” she asks, her voice a bit hesitant.
Her eyes are drawn to her right as there’s another noise, not as loud as the buzzer. The secret door to Torchwood opens, beckoning her to go through it. Holding the pizza close to her, she steps forward.
The door to the hub opens, Annie’s eyes widening as she steps inside and sees the complete mess the Hub is in.
“Bloody hell!”
Finally, as if her mind is processing things, she looks around, more as if she’s looking for someone than at the hub itself.
“Ianto? D’you want these or not?”
Suddenly, there’s a loud screech above her, drawing her attention. She cannot believe it. She sees a pterodactyl flying above her head. As if that wasn’t enough, off to her side, a brief movement catches her eye, drawing her attention there. Lisa stands, a blank look on her face, watching Annie. She’s covered in blood from her fight with the pterodactyl, but she is very much alive.
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"Ianto! Stop!" he yells, voice echoing around the plaza.
"She can't have survived that attack," Gwen calls from just ahead, but keeps running.
"I used my initiative!" yells Tosh, trying to keep pace. "I'm sorry!"
"When I want you to think for yourself, I'll tell you," he growls back, failing to apply diplomacy to the situation. Again.
"Maybe if you'd told me your plan, I wouldn't have done it!" she tells him crossly.
Ianto isn't stopping, and he's a long way in the lead. All they can do is follow him into the office - and find him with a gun levelled at them as they get in. Gwen and Owen stop, shifting to one side to let Jack get in.
"Ianto, don't be stupid!" Gwen starts.
"I've nothing left to lose," he replies, breathing rough, eyes bright with fury and grief.
"There's always something left to lose," Jack says, and gets a gun aimed directly at him for his trouble.
Ianto is trying visibly to sound cold. "I'm going back in to save her. Anybody tries to stop me, I'll shoot them."
"Ianto, put the gun down..." Gwen tries, and Jack moves. He steps forward, grabs Ianto’s wrist with one hand and twists his arm down and back, forcing him to drop the gun, and pushing him one-handed but hard against the wall. His own gun is out and the muzzle at Ianto’s cheek in a second or two without a shot being fired.
"You make a threat like that, you better be prepared to follow it through," he says grimly. "See, you disobey me now... I really will shoot you."
Ianto struggles ineffectually. "Get off me!"
"You wanna go back in there?" Jack asks, voice deceptively level. "You go in to finish the job. If she's still alive, you execute her." He loosens his grip enough to shift the younger man to face him. He looks horrified, shaking his head.
"No way."
"You brought this down on us. You hid her. You hid yourself from us. Now it's time for you to stand as part of the team."
He feels a tentative touch on the back of his shoulder. Gwen, following police training under entirely the wrong circumstances. "Jack..." she says, and he speaks over her voice.
"The girl you loved has gone," he tells Ianto. "Your loyalty is to us now."
"You can't order me to do that."
Jack's voice is almost a growl. For now, while he's this angry, he can and he will. "You execute her or I'll execute you both!"
"I won't do it. You can't make me. You like to think you're a hero. But you're the biggest monster of all."
Wrong. Jack knows exactly what he is. He just knows that he can't stop. Because if he stops then everything dies. "I'm giving you ten minutes," he says. "Then we're coming in."
He's itching to just knock Ianto out and sort this out over his head. But... "Pick it up," he says softly. Ianto reaches down and picks up his gun. He looks at them, then turns and disappears silently into the corridor.
"How can you ask him...?" Tosh breathes.
"I don't need your opinion!" he snaps.
Which means: I don't know. I don't know when I became someone who could force people into something like that.
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There's . . . no sign of Lisa.
Ianto moves through the Hub--when he sees the lights on in the storeroom where the conversion unit is stored, he breaks into a run.
He knows what he's going to find--somehow, knows it in his heart--but still the sight of her breaks something inside him and he falls to his knees. There's blood everywhere, all over the metal frame, and there's no mistaking that Lisa--whatever was left of Lisa in this body--is completely gone.
Ianto cradles her body and weeps.
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In the dimly lit room, Ianto grabs his gun and points it at the woman standing across the room from him. It’s Annie, the pizza girl. Her shirt is soaked with blood and there seems to be a cut across her forehead.
“Ianto. It’s me… It’s Lisa,” she murmured.
Ianto steps around the table. Hesitantly, Annie walks toward him.
“I'm human again. You fought so hard for me, I had to hold on for you, so I took this body and transplanted the brain.”
She had a look as she stared at him, a pleading look. Slowly, Ianto gazes down at Lisa’s body on the floor.
“You’re not Lisa,” he said softly.
“You always said you didn't love me for what I looked like. Last time you said that, it was a Saturday. We were hungover. You made cheese toasties, and moaned I hadn't de-scaled my kettle.”
As she spoke, she stepped closer. Ianto cried as he listened her.
“That night, we camped on a beach in Brittany. It got so freezing we wore our coats and shared one sleeping bag. When we woke up the next morning, a dog was pissing on our tent.”
She sees his tears but presses onward, needing to speak, to get her words out for him.
“Hold me, Ianto. I need you to hold me. I need you to tell me it's all right.”
Still crying, Ianto steps forward. Wrapping his arms carefully around her, he holds her, for a moment. But the moment doesn’t last long. Releasing her, Ianto steps back, cocking the gun and pointing it right in her face. She looks a little confused at this.
”What are you doing? Ianto, it's me! You wouldn't shoot me. I did this for you!”
”I'm sorry. I'm sorry,” he repeats. He lowers the gun, unable to stop his crying. “Lisa!” Ianto slowly turns away from her He can’t do it.
”We can be upgraded ... together.”
A gun fires hitting Lisa-in-Annie in the stomach. Turning around, Ianto sees Owen, Gwen, Jack, and Toshiko aim their guns at Lisa. They fire… and keep firing. Lisa falls backward onto the table from the impact of the bullets. Turning, she looks at Ianto. The team lower their weapons.
Ianto turns back to look at them. While the rest of the team is looking back at him, Gwen can’t look. He turns back to Lisa, falling to his knees beside the bodies.
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It's a few weeks later.
Below them, the alarm blares and lights flash as the front door rolls open. Ianto walks in slowly. He looks up. Jack and Gwen are in the conference room looking down through the windows on the hub. Jack nods to Ianto, expression neutral and eyes watchful. Ianto barely nods back.
Up in the office, Gwen glances at Jack. "You'd never have shot him," she says. "Not really."
"Wouldn't I?" he replies, not looking at her, eyes still following Ianto as he goes about his duties.
She rolls her eyes, obviously disbelieving. "Would you have shot me if I'd gone to stand by him?"
"But you didn't."
"If I had, though," she insists, wanting to know, to hear him say he wouldn't.
"But you didn't."
There is a pause, almost awkward, as Ianto starts to pick up rubbish down below.
"Will he stay?" Gwen asks eventually, to a noncommittal shrug from Jack. She sighs. "All that deception. Because he couldn't bear to live without her. So, have you ever loved anyone that much?"
Jack is silent, face blank and unreadable.
She continues anyway. "When she had hold of you, I thought, just for a moment, I thought maybe you could die after all."
Finally, Jack looks at her, eyes glittering. "Wanna know a secret?" he says, and she nods. "So did I. And just for a second there, I felt so... alive."
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(today, today, I'm back today)
He's scared for a moment that he'll be thrown out, that no one will speak to him, that every decision he's made in the last two weeks will be made moot the moment he steps through the door.
He's greeted by near silence, and looks up at Jack before he moves any further. Jack nods to him, and Ianto nods simply in return.
I'm where I need to be.
He picks up a garbage bag and begins collected the rubbish that's accumulated in his absence. No time for scenes. There's too much to be done.