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m_findlowTitle: Last man standing
Fandom: Torchwood
Yvonne slowly paced the darkened underground passage, listening to the sound of the dial tone ringing against her ear as the phone attempted to connect the call. Once upon a time this place had been a tube station, but had been decommissioned in 1971 after Torchwood had petitioned to use it as an emergency communications waypoint. Most of the alien equipment had since been removed, upgraded and reinstalled at Canary Wharf , but the basic premise of a secure place to undertake covert operations remained. Perfect for what Yvonne needed to store the large incoming shipment of illegal firearms that she planned on handing over to the Korvax if things all went to plan.
The phone stopped its patient, trilling tone and a voice answered. ‘Hello?’
Yvonne was pleased that Ianto continued to answer the unknown number that now frequently appeared, even if it was terribly inconvenient. ‘Ah, so you are taking my calls.’
‘I suppose,’ he replied cagily. ‘What do you want?’
‘Ready and willing to help as well,’ Yvonne replied. ‘What made you change your mind?’
There was a pregnant pause on the other end of the line. ‘She tried to retcon me last night. Rachel. Only I knew, or suspected or… anyway, I slipped a neutralising pill into my drink when she wasn't looking.’
Well, that was an interesting development. ‘And what was it she wanted you to forget?’
‘Her past,’ he replied. ‘I know why she's doing this. It's-’
‘Her father,’ Yvonne said, cutting him off. ‘Yes, I know.’
‘But how?’
‘A little something that popped up on some Ex Libris papers I was reviewing. It turns out our Ms Allen has rather a big chip on her shoulder.’
‘We’re not really saying she’s doing all of this just to avenge her father, are we? I mean, setting you up as a murderer, forcing you to go on the run, abandon Torchwood…’
Yvonne could help but smile at the ambitiousness of it all. Conniving little cow. ‘Creating a little empire from which to destroy anything that threatens her? I can't imagine why you’d think that. Anything in particular give it away?’
‘Well, there has been a lot of emphasis on accelerating every kind of weapons program we have. Even the untested ones.’
‘Anything else?’
Ianto snorted. ‘Apart from the suicidal team building day?’
‘Ah. I take it that lovely nylon tracksuit you were sporting didn't make it.’
‘It wasn’t the only thing not to survive. Pippa…’ his voice trailed off.
‘No,’ Yvonne breathed low, letting the shock of it sink in.
'Yes. Only I’m the only one who knows what happened. Or remembers it.’
‘She retconned the whole team just to cover it up.’ Typical.
‘Retcon seems to be the flavour of the day, doesn’t it?’ His voice was tinged with bitterness. ‘God knows how many times I've had my memory wiped in the past few months. I’m beginning to wonder if Ianto is even my real name.’
‘It is, believe me. But she’s clever. She's not going to let you be privy to too many details. Someone like you would start piecing it all together and realise what she was really up to. Even I didn’t realise until it was too late. She set us all up, played us off one another until the only person we thought we could trust was her.’
‘So, who can we trust, then?’
‘No one,’ she replied. ‘Just the two of us. We’re the only ones who know what she’s really got planned. We need to come up with a little counterattack of our own.’
‘And how’re we going to do that? She’s got control of everything.’ Ianto’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘She watches everything we’re doing.’
‘Not everything. She hasn’t found out about us yet. You’re her eyes and ears. She sees what you want her to see.’
‘And if she finds out, she’ll kill me.’
‘And if we don't stop her, she’ll kill everyone on this planet trying to get her revenge. She wants war with Planet XXX. I can tell you from personal experience that they don’t want war again, but they’ll do it if Rachel keeps pushing her offensive agenda. And they’ll wipe us out. That you can be assured of, no matter how many weapons programs Torchwood has.’
‘But Rachel must know that! Oh god,’ he moaned as if a realisation were dawning on him. ‘That’s why she called us her field soldiers. I thought she just meant to prepare us to defend against alien threats, not to take the fight to them.’
‘And now you see why she has to be stopped. It’s not about leading Torchwood. It’s about leading Earth to war.’
‘She called them alien scum,’ he muttered, almost as if to himself.
‘Such crass language for someone meant to head up Britain’s ambassadorial organisation to interplanetary relations. There's simply no class anymore. All the old ways of diplomacy are dying. Not that it would’ve happened on my watch.’
‘She's still hell bent on finding and killing you.’
‘Of course she is. I'm ruining grandiose plans for personal revenge. Wouldn't you be?’
‘I'm just saying please be careful.’
‘Ianto, if I wanted careful I wouldn't be doing this job. And neither would you,’ she reminded him. ‘Now, you’re going to help me, aren’t you?’
‘I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul.’
‘Did you just quote Calvin and Hobbes to me?’
‘Shut up.’
‘Yes, well coming from the man who offered me his sofa and his Star Wars duvet I suppose that’s an improvement on things. Anyway, now that you know which side you're on, you might do me a teensy weensy little favour.’
‘Of course. Why else would I have let you talk this long and not reported it to security? You’ll be the death of me with all these little favours, you know.’
‘Rome wasn’t built in a day, Ianto, and Rachel Allen certainly isn’t tearing down my Torchwood either. I’m creating a little army of my own.’
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Yvonne
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: Major spoilers for Big Finish audioplay “Torchwood One: Before the fall”
Author notes: Written for Challenge 146 - Creation at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomweekly
fandomweeklySummary: Yvonne is backed into a corner by her enemy, but she still has one card up her sleeve.
Yvonne slowly paced the darkened underground passage, listening to the sound of the dial tone ringing against her ear as the phone attempted to connect the call. Once upon a time this place had been a tube station, but had been decommissioned in 1971 after Torchwood had petitioned to use it as an emergency communications waypoint. Most of the alien equipment had since been removed, upgraded and reinstalled at Canary Wharf , but the basic premise of a secure place to undertake covert operations remained. Perfect for what Yvonne needed to store the large incoming shipment of illegal firearms that she planned on handing over to the Korvax if things all went to plan.
The phone stopped its patient, trilling tone and a voice answered. ‘Hello?’
Yvonne was pleased that Ianto continued to answer the unknown number that now frequently appeared, even if it was terribly inconvenient. ‘Ah, so you are taking my calls.’
‘I suppose,’ he replied cagily. ‘What do you want?’
‘Ready and willing to help as well,’ Yvonne replied. ‘What made you change your mind?’
There was a pregnant pause on the other end of the line. ‘She tried to retcon me last night. Rachel. Only I knew, or suspected or… anyway, I slipped a neutralising pill into my drink when she wasn't looking.’
Well, that was an interesting development. ‘And what was it she wanted you to forget?’
‘Her past,’ he replied. ‘I know why she's doing this. It's-’
‘Her father,’ Yvonne said, cutting him off. ‘Yes, I know.’
‘But how?’
‘A little something that popped up on some Ex Libris papers I was reviewing. It turns out our Ms Allen has rather a big chip on her shoulder.’
‘We’re not really saying she’s doing all of this just to avenge her father, are we? I mean, setting you up as a murderer, forcing you to go on the run, abandon Torchwood…’
Yvonne could help but smile at the ambitiousness of it all. Conniving little cow. ‘Creating a little empire from which to destroy anything that threatens her? I can't imagine why you’d think that. Anything in particular give it away?’
‘Well, there has been a lot of emphasis on accelerating every kind of weapons program we have. Even the untested ones.’
‘Anything else?’
Ianto snorted. ‘Apart from the suicidal team building day?’
‘Ah. I take it that lovely nylon tracksuit you were sporting didn't make it.’
‘It wasn’t the only thing not to survive. Pippa…’ his voice trailed off.
‘No,’ Yvonne breathed low, letting the shock of it sink in.
'Yes. Only I’m the only one who knows what happened. Or remembers it.’
‘She retconned the whole team just to cover it up.’ Typical.
‘Retcon seems to be the flavour of the day, doesn’t it?’ His voice was tinged with bitterness. ‘God knows how many times I've had my memory wiped in the past few months. I’m beginning to wonder if Ianto is even my real name.’
‘It is, believe me. But she’s clever. She's not going to let you be privy to too many details. Someone like you would start piecing it all together and realise what she was really up to. Even I didn’t realise until it was too late. She set us all up, played us off one another until the only person we thought we could trust was her.’
‘So, who can we trust, then?’
‘No one,’ she replied. ‘Just the two of us. We’re the only ones who know what she’s really got planned. We need to come up with a little counterattack of our own.’
‘And how’re we going to do that? She’s got control of everything.’ Ianto’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘She watches everything we’re doing.’
‘Not everything. She hasn’t found out about us yet. You’re her eyes and ears. She sees what you want her to see.’
‘And if she finds out, she’ll kill me.’
‘And if we don't stop her, she’ll kill everyone on this planet trying to get her revenge. She wants war with Planet XXX. I can tell you from personal experience that they don’t want war again, but they’ll do it if Rachel keeps pushing her offensive agenda. And they’ll wipe us out. That you can be assured of, no matter how many weapons programs Torchwood has.’
‘But Rachel must know that! Oh god,’ he moaned as if a realisation were dawning on him. ‘That’s why she called us her field soldiers. I thought she just meant to prepare us to defend against alien threats, not to take the fight to them.’
‘And now you see why she has to be stopped. It’s not about leading Torchwood. It’s about leading Earth to war.’
‘She called them alien scum,’ he muttered, almost as if to himself.
‘Such crass language for someone meant to head up Britain’s ambassadorial organisation to interplanetary relations. There's simply no class anymore. All the old ways of diplomacy are dying. Not that it would’ve happened on my watch.’
‘She's still hell bent on finding and killing you.’
‘Of course she is. I'm ruining grandiose plans for personal revenge. Wouldn't you be?’
‘I'm just saying please be careful.’
‘Ianto, if I wanted careful I wouldn't be doing this job. And neither would you,’ she reminded him. ‘Now, you’re going to help me, aren’t you?’
‘I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul.’
‘Did you just quote Calvin and Hobbes to me?’
‘Shut up.’
‘Yes, well coming from the man who offered me his sofa and his Star Wars duvet I suppose that’s an improvement on things. Anyway, now that you know which side you're on, you might do me a teensy weensy little favour.’
‘Of course. Why else would I have let you talk this long and not reported it to security? You’ll be the death of me with all these little favours, you know.’
‘Rome wasn’t built in a day, Ianto, and Rachel Allen certainly isn’t tearing down my Torchwood either. I’m creating a little army of my own.’
