Canon: Cyberwoman

[likesthecoat]

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.

Comments

[likesthecoat]

As the team return to the hub, Jack has his hand on Ianto’s shoulder. Ianto doesn't resist.

"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."

[angiedeluca.livejournal.com]

Gwen looked at Jack, blinking at what was enfolding in front of her. "You can't just let him go..."

"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.”

[oohshinyalien.livejournal.com]

And run they do, all the way to the conference room.

"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 tiff argument, 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.

[othercaptjack]

Jack takes a breath, and turns to look at Owen and Gwen. "You two... find anything that even resembles a weapon," he orders.

"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."

[angiedeluca.livejournal.com]

Lisa grabs Jack’s shoulder again, zapping him. She watches him yell and fall to his knees before falling to the floor.

“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.

[csicardiff.livejournal.com]

Owen and Gwen run down to the medical bay. Owen looks through the tray of stuff, searching for a weapon, while Gwen aims her flashlight at Lisa, trying to keeping her in sight - before the cyberwoman turns around and looks back at Gwen.

"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?

[othercaptjack]

Jack regains consciousness with a shudder of life, and groans before he can stop himself. He pants heavily as he gets to his knees, looking around through blurring eyes - but Lisa doesn't seem to have seen.

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.

[pc-cooper.livejournal.com]

A freezer door closes and Gwen's still kissing Owen, clutching his shoulders tightly. She can't say she actually minds too--

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.

[likesthecoat]

At the sound of Lisa's scream Ianto stops staring in shock at Jack, shoves himself to his feet and runs across the water tower pool to find her.

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.

[othercaptjack]

Gwen grabs his arm, and starts tugging him away. "Ianto, move! Get out!" When he fails to move for a second, she panics and starts shoving him to the stairs. "GET OUT I SAID! MOVE! MOVE!"

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!"

[likesthecoat]

Upstairs, Tosh is still working on the power, frantically connecting wires. "Yes!" she whispers as her power cell light flickers on.

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.

[angiedeluca.livejournal.com]

Outside the tourist shop, a girl walks up to the door. It is the delivery girl from Jubilee Pizza. She rings the door to be let in, as she has probably done countless times before.

“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.

[othercaptjack]

Jack runs as flat out as he can manage with his whole face aching - Ianto has one hell of a punch on him when pissed, apparently - trying to catch up to him before he runs right into his girlfriend and sure electrocution.

"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.

[likesthecoat]

There's blood. There's pizza boxes. Oh, shit. Annie. There's the pterodactyl. There's the computer warning them of power failure.

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.

[angiedeluca.livejournal.com]

“Ianto…”

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.

[othercaptjack]

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."

[likesthecoat]

Ianto adjusts his tie, heart pounding as the elevator carries him down into the Hub.

(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.