Torchwood: Fanfic: Elixir of life (Part five)

[m_findlow]

Title: Elixir of life (Part five)
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Gwen, Ianto, Rhys, OCs
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 11,973 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Inspired by Challenge 158 - Egg at fan_flashworks
Summary: A missing antique holds the key to one of life's greatest secrets

Previously on Torchwood...

'Call him again,' Gwen said, powering down the motorway, pushing the little car to its limits.

'I've tried ten times, already. He's not answering,' Ianto replied, getting tetchy at Gwen, when it was Jack he was annoyed with. They shouldn't have let him go alone. He dialed again anyway.

'Answer your phone, Jack...' he muttered under his breath. Nothing.

'What chance that the address Jack had is bogus as well?' she asked.

'If it was, why would he not be answering his phone or his comms?'

'Good point.' She growled in frustration. 'It feels like we've been lead on a wild goose chase.'

'You don't suppose Henry Parker knew anything, do you?'

'Right now, I'm not sure to what to think.'

 

Jack was dragged down to a further antechamber underneath the sub-basement level and laid out on a hard metal gurney. The man's assistant helped to strip him of his clothing, attaching several probes to various points on his body.

The man picked out the oddly shaped jewel from Henry Parker's egg with a set of tweezers and admired it. He'd expected to have to have it cut and shaped into the two parts he needed, but having two of them now made his task infinitely simpler.

Everything was still experimental this stage,  but much of the preparation work and research had already been done. He knew all about Torchwood, and about their illustrious Captain who couldn't die. Well, couldn't die wasn't precisely the correct term for it; he did indeed die, but his regenerative abilities had been witnessed first hand. With the crystals, that was all about to change. He'd be better than Jack, more powerful. He'd be the man who couldn't die. Ever.

 

Pulling up outside the registered address, Ianto spotted the problem straight away.

'Where's the SUV?' He'd been expecting it to be parked right outside on the street.

'He wouldn't have gone somewhere else without telling us, right?'

Ianto brought up the GPS tracker for the SUV and found the tiny red dot blinking right on top of them.

'According to this, it's here.'

'Where?' Gwen said, looking over the steering wheel.

Ianto got out of the car, looking around, perplexed. He checked down the length of the street and in the driveways of the houses, his gaze finally resting on the garage door of the house they'd come to find. He nodded his head in its direction and Gwen nodded back, as they moved to disable the lock. It came away easily, the door rolling up to reveal the familiar black vehicle.

'Did that seem a little easy?' Ianto asked.

Gwen narrowed her eyes, looking for eyes peering at them though nearby windows, feeling a presence watching their every move.

'Yeah.'

They knocked on the front door, but no one answered. Gwen tried the intercom button got the same result.

'What do you think?' she asked, looking up at Ianto.

He reached for the door, finding it unlocked, the handle sliding easily in his hand. They drew their guns out, slipping through the door and splitting up.

'Hello?' Gwen called out. 'Jack?'

The inside of the house was sleek and modern, monotone shades for all the furnishings and decor, and a large open plan living room, with abstract art on the walls. There was no one on the ground floor. Dashing up the stairs they tag-teamed to clear the second storey; also empty.

'I don't understand,' Gwen said, jogging back down the stairs. 'If the car is here, then where is Jack?'

'Could be another dead end,' Ianto suggested.

'Maybe we went somewhere else.'

'Or maybe he was taken.'

'None of this makes sense,' Gwen sighed. Someone steals an egg from Parker's house, with a gem that has healing properties, a medical research company that doesn't exist, and now Jack's gone missing? Where do we even start looking?'

'The gem gives off this weird energy. If we could just boost the power of our scanner enough, we might be able to pick up on the signal.'

Ianto began adjusting the specifications on his PDA, whilst Gwen cast her eyes around the room again. It looked normal, almost ridiculously so. Just a plain everyday looking house, albeit on the posh side. Then she heard a thump.

She spun her heard at the sound. 'Did you hear that?'

'What?' Ianto said, too busy concentrating on making the necessary adjustments.

'I thought I heard something; like a footstep.'

'Hang on, almost, got it.' The PDA began to beep softly. Just like the SUV, the gem was very close by.

'It's coming from the back door,' Ianto said, stepping out of the room and down the long hallway, following the signal.

Gwen was still looking around, searching for the noise she'd heard. She ran her eyes over the spacious living area again, then stepped through the kitchen to peer out of the large glass windows that looked out onto the patio, before finally leaving the room to follow Ianto down the hall. Only Ianto wasn't there.

 

As soon as he'd taken that final step sideways, following the signal, the image of the sleek hallway and door had disappeared, and he found himself face to face with a burly looking man who grabbed him.

'Ianto?'

He saw Gwen stepping down the hall. He called out a warning to her but she didn't hear him, or see him. A perception filter, he realised. The whole house had been a ruse, showing them what they wanted to see, just like everything else so far today. He felt himself pulled down a set of steps, whilst he watched Gwen walk straight past him, and out the door at the back of the house.

 

'Ianto,' Gwen called, peering out into the small, manicured garden. There was no trace of him. Bloody hell. First Jack, now Ianto. What the hell was going on around here? She tried calling his phone. It rang but he didn't answer, and neither could she hear it ringing. A bad feeling clenched at her gut, and she gripped her gun tighter. She was sure now she hadn't misheard the noise from earlier. Someone else was here. Maybe invisible or something. She carefully retraced her steps to the back door, twisting it and finding it locked against her. She tugged harder but it didn't budge.

 

Ianto was ungracefully hauled down a long set of steps, through one room, and down another set of stairs by the man who'd grabbed him. Struggle as he might, the man was twice his size, and had one arm firmly wrapped around his hip, and the other around his neck, pulling him forcefully.

When the motion stopped, he thought he must have been blinded because the room was almost pitch dark. Then he caught sight of a tall man in a long black robe, hovering over a metal table. He couldn't see the top half of the body that was lying on it until the man stepped away and turned, and then he was shocked to find the man lying on the table was Jack. He seemed to be drugged or unconscious, or maybe dead.

The tall, bald man stepped over to him and tutted like he was faced with a naughty schoolboy.

'And he made me promise not to harm you. A pity. We did not expect you to find us. So very nosy, aren't you?'

'What have you done to him?' Ianto growled.

'Nothing. Yet.'

'If you harm him, I swear to God I'll-'

'Oh,' he clapped his hands together in amusement, 'so dramatic. You've become just like him. I promise you he'll live once I'm done with him. He just might not live quite so long as before.'

Ianto felt a chill run down his spine. 'What do you mean?'

'I didn't really expect an audience for this, but now that you're here, well, I quite like being able to demonstrate my own cleverness.'

Hanging over the table was a large round glass, convex, attached to a metal clamp and pointed at a forty-five degree angle. At one end of the table sat another concave glass, sitting between it and another piece of machinery. The man moved the convex glass, positioning it precisely over Jack's chest, and producing from his pocket a tiny golden object. It glinted in the single overhead light, its peach colour distinct enough for Ianto to know it was the gem from the Faberge egg, slotting it into the central piece of the glass.

'I'm quite well traveled, you know,' he said. 'I've been all across the globe, from the jungles of the Amazon, to the snowy mountains of Tibet. Conversed with Hindu priests, shamans and Chinese medicine men. All in search of the elusive elixir of life. I had almost given up hope until I discovered that we were not alone in the universe, and that the answer lay out amongst the stars.'

'Your Mr Parker has a very interesting collection of artifacts,' he said, turning back to look at Ianto, 'though not nearly as extensive as the treasure you've been keeping. Your Captain is a singularly unique individual, carrying time itself within him. Time which can heal all wounds, preserve one's youth, and even stop death.'

'What are you going to do to him?'

'With the aid of these gems, I can extract the very vortex from within him, channeling it to another... me. Only it will be so much more than that. By using these to transfer time, not only will I be able to live forever, I will never be able to die. Nothing will injure or harm me, nor death ever take me. I will truly be a God amongst men.'

Ianto couldn't believe what he was hearing. This madman was planning on taking Jack's very life source and ripping it from his body. He didn't know how that was even possible, but right now it didn't matter.

'You said you wouldn't hurt him.'

'And I won't. He'll live. But he'll live a mortal life, just as you and I do now. Assuming everything works out. If not, it might be that I take this life as well. A small price to pay for your God, wouldn't you say?'

 

Assured that there was nothing hiding in the garden with her, Gwen made short work of breaking back into the house via a small window on the second floor. She'd tried the large glass doors from the patio that opened into the kitchen and living room, but the reinforced glass refused to shatter when she hit it with the butt of her gun. Next to the patio, by the lefthand side of then house, was a paved area, and at its centre, a large stone obelisk with water slipping down its length. She clambered up on to it, trying to reach the small window, and nearly slipping off the slick surface of the stone altogether, before finally breaking the glass out of the panel and hauling herself inside. It didn't matter how much noise she made right now, she had to get in and find Jack and Ianto.

She expected to be jumped the minute she entered, but like before, the house seemed silent and empty.

She trotted back downstairs to the last place she'd remembered seeing Ianto and ran a hand along the walls, searching for hidden panels or sliding doorways. As she stepped closer to the back door, her fingers slipped over the brushed grey walls - and disappeared into them. She pulled back, startled, before touching the spot again. She pressed her whole hand in this time, before pulling it back out, confirming it was still whole. As she did, the image of the wall seemed to shift and flicker out of focus, dropping away to reveal a passage behind it, and a set of stairs that lead downwards. A perception filter. Once she'd touched it and known it was there, its chameleon qualities had fallen away, the perception broken. She flew down the stairs and towards the door at the bottom, gun aimed and ready for whatever was down there.

Concludes in part six...