Anythingdrabble Challenge 5 - Alone to blame

[m_findlow]

Title: Alone to blame
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Ianto
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: G
Notes: Written for Challenge 5 - Homocide at anythingdrabble
Summary: Ianto struggles to define his actions

Sitting alone on the sofa in his apartment, he wasn't sure what to do next. A month's suspension. What the hell was he supposed to do with himself?

Sit there and think about what you've done,the tiny voice inside his head told him.

Homicide. What that the correct term for it? He pulled out his phone and Googled it.

Noun. The killing of one person by another, whether intended (murder) or not (manslaughter). From the Latin homo, meaning man, and cida, to kill. Sometimes used synonymously with the term murder, but this is incorrect. Homicide has a much broader meaning.

Well, it sounded a lot better than murder, and it hadn't been intended. Did it still count if it was a machine that had done the killing, but that you were ultimately responsible for the actions of the machine? Could you prove that it had no sentient intelligence of its own with which to make decisions, and that therefore any actions it undertook were under the direction of its creator?

That wasn't strictly true, though, was it? Machines lacked sentience, but this had been much more than a machine. It was a creation from another world, merged with the functionality and sentience of a human being. How could you tell which bits were human and which bits were machine? For months he'd let himself believe that the two were mutually exclusive, and that the machine was just an external shell, a unit to contain the human spirit within. The machine was nothing in and of itself. All that mattered was the soul of the person he loved which was trapped inside. He continued reading on.

Not all homicide is unlawful; killing in self-defense, for example, is not a crime. Individuals may, in a necessary act of self-defense, kill a person who threatens them with death or serious injury.

Is that what had happened? Hadn't Jack threatened to execute them both? He'd held a gun to Ianto's head. Did that make it okay?

But no, she hadn't seen that happen. Jack's threats had been directed towards Ianto. She was capable of killing them far more easily than they were her. Jack had threatened their existence, but Dr Tanazaki hadn't threatened anyone, nor had that poor girl, Annie, and now they were both dead. Jack was alive, his team were alive, and Ianto was alive, but they weren't. They were dead because he'd brought Lisa here, and they were dead because he'd stayed by her side and made her strong again. He'd given her everything she needed and in return she'd given him lies.

He hadn't meant for it to happen. Yes, he'd held a gun and intended to shoot anyone who got in his way, but would he have done it? Could he really have shot Jack, or the others if they stood against him?

They'd justified killing her in self-defense. He only wished the Cybermen had killed him before he'd let one of their own loose on the world.

Comments

[love-jackianto.livejournal.com]

So sad. Poor Ianto

[bk_forever]

Poor Ianto, he'd only wanted to save a life, he'd never meant for anyone to be harmed. Still, he can't be held responsible for the deaths, because Lisa was acting on her own. She made conscious decisions and people died as a result. It's going to take Ianto a long time to forgive himself though.

[jo02]

I love your Ianto introspections.

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

Why thank you! It wasn't the idea I originally had for this prompt.
It is rather bleak though....