Torchwood Advent Challenge - 24th December

[m_findlow]

Title: Trouble brewing
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Torchwood team
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 8,447 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for prompt "Storm Warning"
Summary: There's a storm looming on the horizon.

'There's a rift storm coming,' Jack announced to the team.

'A big one,' Ianto added.

He didn't know how he knew that, but it was something that had happened when the TARDIS had made him immortal like Jack. Something to do with the time vortex inside him, and they way it vibrated ever so slightly when then rift was playing up. This time it was more than just a little buzz in the pit of his stomach. He could feel it in every nerve ending, and he knew Jack could feel it too. He hadn't even had to say it out loud. They just knew.

'Spidey senses playing up again, are they?' Jez joked. Their ability to sense major rift activity had become something of an in joke. He claimed that they sometimes oversold their ability in order to get more overtime out of the team.

Jack would normally had made some kind of joke, but the stern expression on his face spoke more clearly than anything. It worried Ianto. He'd been living with this feeling a lot longer than Ianto, and if he was worried, then they all should be.

'I'm not getting anything on the rift predictor program,' Adelaide, her face pinched in an annoyed little way.

That worried him even more. Like an earthquake, the rift usually gave off little signs that it was growing in activity before the main event. It was ever so subtle, a hundred little things that changed ever so slightly in the days and hours beforehand. It was still an amazement to him how Tosh had ever devised the program in the first place, having analysed so much data to come up with a reliable series of factors that could be measured to form a prediction. It had certainly made their lives easier, being able to plan for rift activity. Even now with his heightened sense for it, even the most basic rift energies were hardly noticeable to him. It was just something he'd gotten used to. No, this time it was different. Something was coming.

'So, what do we do now?' Johnson asked. He liked the way she always cut right to the heart of the issue without making a big deal about it. He supposed special ops training had honed those skills long before she'd been recruited to Torchwood.

'I dunno,' Jack replied. 'Without knowing what it is, and what it might be bringing with it, all we can do is wait.'

'Should we be preparing or something? You say it's big, right?' That was Johnson through and through, always needing to have a plan of action.

'Bigger than anything I've ever felt,' Jack confessed.

'Could it be aliens?' she said. 'Like when that 456 thing came?'

Jack just shook his head and shrugged, wishing he could tell them more. Ianto sympathised. They knew something was coming, but what?

'We could evacuate the city, like,' Jez suggested.

'Is there even time for that?' Gwen asked. 'For all we know, moving people could make things worse. Set off a mass panic.'

'I'm with Gwen,' Adelaide said. 'People are safer off in their homes, not knowing.'

'I'm going to go call Rhys,' Gwen said. 'Bring him and Anwen here. It might not be any safer, but I'll feel better knowing they're close.'

'So, what do we all do?' Penny asked, finally finding the courage to voice the thought on everyone's mind.

'We keep doing what we do,' Jack said, taking the lead.

'And we prepare as much as we can,' Ianto added. 'Nobody goes anywhere without their comms, a weapon and one of our portable force shields. We lock down whatever surplus weapons we have, backup out databases, make sure that the redundancies and generators are ready to go live, and set up provisions in as many of our secure shelters as we can make ready. Jez, make sure out medical kits are ready. Penny, lock down all the secure archives, and activate the emergency override protocols. Adelaide will go with you to help.'

'No probs, boss,' Adelaide said.

'Johnson, you're with me to sort our weapons,' Jack said. 'Gwen,'

'Got it,' she said, already knowing to put out alerts with local law enforcement and UNIT. They needed to be ready too. 'You don't that think this is all a bit of overkill?' she quietly asked once the rest of the team were gone, setting about their own tasks.

'I'd rather we look silly for overreacting than get caught short totally unprepared,' Ianto said.

Within an hour of having issued their orders, the whole team were reconvened in the  boardroom, trying to make sense of the rift activity displaying on the large projector screen.

'I don't get it,' Gwen said, frowning at the images, still nervously fiddling with her phone in one hand, waiting for Rhys to call and say he'd arrived.

'There's nothing,' Johnson said.

'I don't believe it,' Jack said, but there wasn't the slightest hint of incredulity in his voice. It was statement of someone who knew the computer was lying.

'It's what that system is telling us,' Adelaide said.

'Del, you checked this against all our historical records?' Ianto asked.

'All of them,' she confirmed. 'Every significant rift event for the past forty years and all the data either side of them for a week. No matches.'

So why did Ianto's stomach feel like it was doing backflips without the rest of him? He'd never felt this unsettled before.

'Something's wrong with then data, then,' Jack said, pushing himself up from the chair and storming out of the room.

Gwen gave Ianto a look and he followed Jack out, indicating the rest of them should follow. Jack was well ahead of them, already at the bottom of the stairs, and headed for Johnson's computer.

'Jack, what do you think you're going to find that out computer systems can't?' Gwen asked.

He turned in the swivel chair and looked straight at her. 'This isn't just some crazy rift storm, coming to dump a whole heard of dragons on our doorstep.'

'Is that even possible?' Jez asked.

'2009,' Ianto replied. 'But it was just the one.'

'So, what are you saying?' Adelaide asked.

Jack tapped at the keys, running a whole bunch of programs Ianto had never even seen before.

'Jack?' Ianto slowly said, waiting for an explanation from his lover.

'Time and space are linear but infinite,' Jack explained. 'But it's not a solid and fixed thing. Time can be warped and bent around by certain powerful gravitational forces, like black holes, but otherwise it remains a constant force. With the right technology though, you can create folds in time and space, narrowing the gap between one point in time and space and another. You can force linear time to concertina for a brief moment, just a nanosecond, but you can't ever change it. Without that influencing force, it just springs back into its normal shape.'

'What are you getting at, Jack?' Ianto asked.

'Look at this,' he said, pointing at a black screen.

'What are we supposed to be seeing?' Jez asked.

Jack pointed to a tiny spec of light right at its centre. 'That.'

'A star?'

'Not one star. Thousands. All condensed together.'

'Don't get it,' Adelaide said. She always hated this sciency stuff. Give her a battle with a weevil any day.

'Here's the same picture from the same deep space observatory five hours ago.' This time the spread of light was larger, about the size of a fist. 'And this is twelve hours ago,' he said, bringing up a screen full of twinkling dots. 'Now compare it to the same image taken this time last year exactly. This is how the sky should look.'

'Where did all the stars go?' Johnson asked.

'They're still there, but now they've been squashed into a smaller and smaller space.'

'Are we saying some kind of gravitational force is pulling them towards one another?' Ianto said.

'Something is out there, literally bending time and space in a way that just shouldn't be possible.'

'Something is trying to force its way through,' Ianto said, thinking out aloud.

'That's why the rift predictor is coming up donuts. The rift itself isn't doing anything. Whatever it is, it's trying to tear a whole through to get here, and the rift just happens to be a handy little zipper in the fabric of space time.'

'But what could be powerful enough to create a path through space time?' Ianto asked. 'Remember the last time something tried to force its way here. The Powells? Using a locomotive train to transport themselves here? Even they weren't stable enough to arrive en masse.'

'That's right,' Gwen added.' Rhys had to ship them here in small packages.'

'But why?' Johnson asked. 'Cardiff isn't exactly Disneyland.'

'You'd be amazed at what will queue up to get here,' Ianto replied.

Jack sat down at the desk and ran a hand through his hair. It didn't make any sense. You had to be built of pretty strong stuff to pass voluntarily through a rift, or have a mightily fortified vessel to transport you. In his head he could do the math. The size of what was coming... He scribbled some numbers on a loose piece of paper, crossed out one set and redid them. He shook his head. The numbers just didn't add up. No one could build a ship that big with that much mass. Even if you could, the power requirements...

'What are you thinking, Jack?' Ianto asked, setting a hand on his shoulder. He could see the deep look of concern and the chicken scratches on the page - math that was beyond his comprehension - that added up to nothing good.

'I don't know. It's just not possible.'

There was a beeping alert from one of their other computers that nearly made Ianto jump out of his skin, so deeply concerned was he at Jack's words.

'Weevil on the loose in Radyr,' Adelaide said, already checking the alert on her phone.

Ianto let out a breath. Get a grip, Jones.

'Wait,' she said, 'there's another one down by the docks.' There was another beeping alarm.

'Cathays Park,' Johnson reported. 'More weevils.'

'They know something's coming too,' Jack said, his words feeling ominous. The low level telepathic ability they seemed to have had never been explained, but since they passed through the rift most often, it came as no surprise that they might be more finely attuned to its unpredictability.

'Okay,' Ianto said. 'Gwen, you and Adelaide take the weevils in Cathays. Jez and Johnson, head out to Radyr. Jack and I will nab the one by the docks. Jez?'

'Yeah, boss?'

'We're going to need sedative agent packed into our aerosol dispersal units. As many as you can make. I want them packed in the SUV, ready to go.'

'What are you thinking, Ianto?' Gwen asked.

'If something bad is going down, I don't want us tied up dealing with weevil rebellions all across the city. We're going to plant these units in all the known weevil lairs. It might not knock them out completely, but hopefully it's enough to quell their unease.'

'You want us to walk right into weevil known weevil colonies and set off gas bombs?' Adelaide said, looking at him like he was mad.

'Not you. It's too dangerous. Jack and I will do it.'

There was a flurry of argument but Ianto silenced them all. 'We're doing this. Something's coming and we don't know what. We don't have then luxury of time to debate it.'

The team split up as instructed, leaving Penny to stay at the hub and keep and eye on things whilst the rest of them tracked down their rogue weevils. If anything, the weevils were far less aggressive than usual. Suddenly Torchwood agents didn't pose as big a threat as whatever it was they thought they were trying to escape. It couldn't be said that they went along quietly, but they didn't fight back with the usual amount of deadly aggression.

Jack and Ianto quickly subdued their own charge, taking it back to one of the largest known colonies, in a section of sewer that ran along the river. Once down in the fetid tunnels, they left their unconscious weevil and went about their primary objective, setting canisters in strategically marked places along the system. They could at least be activated remotely, meaning that they'd be well out of range by the time it was set off. There were four significant colonies and about a dozen minor ones, and it took most of the afternoon, navigating the underground maze of tunnels to plant each of the canisters. Jez had come up trumps, managing to manufacture several dozen, which were transported from the hub to the various locations by other members of the team. It was only the fact that they had to have their wits about them, traipsing through the plethora of tunnels, any of which would have weevils lurking in them, that made them forget their more immediate problem. The smell down there was enough to turn anyone's stomach.

As Ianto clambered up the ladder, pulling himself up through the narrow opening near where they'd left the car, it was the sky overhead that caught his attention. He expected to be blinded by the sudden daylight, even if it was a grey, cold day.

'It's darker,' Ianto said, looking up at the sky as Jack followed him up the ladder and out onto the road. 'Is it a storm gathering?' he asked, feeling that nauseating tug in his stomach again

Jack frowned, adjudging the sky for himself. 'It's the sun,' he said. 'It's being pulled further away from the Earth.'

Ianto thought back to the images of all those stars, being condensed into that tiny space. 'But shouldn't we be getting pulled too?'

'The sun has way more mass. It's going to go quicker than us. We're just getting dragged along for the ride.'

'What the hell is happening, Jack?' He looked genuinely frightened as he said it.

'I wish I knew.'

It was a subdued affair once they got back to the hub, showering to remove some of the smell before joining the others for coffee and some desperately needed sandwiches.

'Anything?' Jack asked, looking towards Penny for any news from their computer systems as to what was going on.

She shook her head. 'I'm sorry.' Their archivist had done as much research as she could, but none of their records mentioned anything like what was happening now. Jack's own recollections from the past hundred and fifty years were equally unhelpful.

'Don't apologise,' Gwen said, reaching across a sympathetic hand.

'D'you lot have any idea what's going on out there?' Rhys asked, having joined them at Gwen's insistence, Awnen in his lap, bent over the table with a piece of paper and a box of crayons.

Ianto pushed away his own plate, the sandwich barely touched. His stomach was twisting in knots and he didn't think he could keep it down. He had no idea how Jack was managing it, but then again, Jack could eat anything, just about any time.

'It's getting worse, isn't it?' Jez asked, watching him carefully. It didn't matter that two of his teammates and his bosses were immortal, they still suffered illness and injury the same as the rest of them. It was his job to try and help wherever he could.

'Yeah,' Jack replied on his behalf, resting a reassuring hand on Ianto's knee under the table. 'I don't think we're gonna have to wait much longer.'

There was a crackle from the computer monitor at the side of the room. A small rift spike, like a bolt of lightning hitting the ground. They could both tell it was somehow connected to the heavier feeling of what was to come. He stood up and followed Jack as he raced down the stairs once more, headed for the closest computer console.

He frowned as the first of the readings came through. 'It's too small,' Jack said.

'An offshoot maybe?' Gwen suggested

'Or an advance party,' Johnson said.

'Bring up local CCTV in the area,' Jack said. 'Let's get a look at it.'

Ianto slid into then chair next to him and tapped at the console. What they saw moving in the distance of a street camera pointed at a local park playground sent chills down his spine.

'What the hell is that?' Adelaide asked peering closer. 'Is it a robot?'

Ianto could feel Jack's hand reach out towards his own shoulder, gripping it so hard that it was painful as his hand continued to tense around it.

'Oh my God,' he heard Gwen mutter, hearing the fear in her voice.

'Not robots,' Ianto said, watching the CCTV and hardly able to believe it himself. 'Cybermen. Humans converted into machines with the singular purpose of creating more of themselves, wiping out all other living creatures.'

'Yeah, but it still just a machine, right?' Jez said. 'We just shoot it, or short circuit it somehow.'

'Believe me, these things aren't that easy to kill,' Johnson replied. 'I read the mission report from 2006.' She didn't say anything more, trying to be sensitive to the people in the room who'd been there at the time when it happened.

Ianto grabbed the piece of paper Jack had been scribbling on, trying to make sense of it, and finally seeing what numbers Jack had been trying to establish. 'Oh my God.'

Jack's throat was dry as dust, trying to force out just the one word. 'Billions.'

Ianto was glad he was already sitting because his legs felt like jelly. It shouldn't be possible but it was happening. They must have reconfigured themselves ssomehow - they were machines after all - somehow coming together to form an impenetrable entity capable of breaching the very fundamental rules of time and space travel.

Gwen was thinking the same thing. 'If they figured out a way to travel here, through space time and alternate universes, then there'll be no stopping them from converting this world into seven billion more soldiers before they move on to the next world.'

'But we can stop them, yeah?' Adelaide asked. When no one answered her, she repeated the question. 'Can't we?'

Ianto grabbed his phone and pressed it to Jack's chest. 'Call that Doctor of yours. If it's as bad as we think, then we're going to need his help. We don't stand a chance against them otherwise.'

Jack sat there, transfixed on the CCTV .

'Jack!' Ianto said, startling him. He turned and blinked at his lover. 'Go,' Ianto said, pressing the phone towards him once more. Unsteadily he got to his feet, disappearing towards his office. Ianto watched him go, knowing he didn't want the others to hear how scared he was.

'We're not just going to let that thing wander the streets, are we?' Johnson said

No, she was right. It might be only one, or perhaps a couple, but they wouldn't take long to establish themselves, to start killing and converting.

He swallowed hard. 'There's two plasma canons and a couple of high velocity guns in the weapons store. They're probably the only things powerful enough to stop a Cyberman, or at least slow it down. Johnson, Adelaide, Take two weapons each and do what you can. Jez, go with them. There could be innocent people out there hurt by these things who'll need your help.'

'I'm going too,' Gwen said, determined not to be left behind.

'Gwen...' Rhys gave her a low warning.

'No,' Ianto said. Rhys had never been so grateful to him. 'It's too dangerous.'

'But this is what we do.'

'Not this time.' He looked up at the boardroom windows, seeing the tiny little girl still sitting up there drawing pictures, completely unaware of what was happening. He had Anwen to think about. The whole world stood on a knife's edge. He wouldn't be the one to rob her daughter of her mother just yet. 'I need you here.'

Adelaide was already coming back, large gun hefted in her slim arms. Still far too eager to throw herself into danger, he thought. Johnson wasn't far behind, clipping her faithful automatic to her belt. It would be almost useless against a Cyberman if it came down to it, but she didn't go anywhere without it.

'Please, please, be careful,' he implored them. 'These things are more dangerous than you know. They can electrocute you with a single touch.'

'We'll be fine,' Johnson said.

'Your orders are to kill. Don't even try to capture it. Dismantle it, burn it, but don't leave so much as a single piece behind.' He watched them leave, full of the enthusiasm and invincibility of youth, wondering if he was sending them to their deaths.

'They'll be fine,' Gwen said, echoing Johnson's words.

'Right now, none of us are,' he said, leaving her and Rhys behind.

He marched towards his own office, needing to see Jack and know that The Doctor was on his way. He spotted his husband leaning back in the chair, looking ten years older than he had this morning.

'Jack?' He laid a hand on his shoulder, not even needing to ask the question.

He nodded. 'He's on his way.'

As soon as The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, Ianto stepped closer to Jack and whispered in his ear. 'It's the first one.'

What Ianto meant by the comment was it was the first iteration of The Doctor he'd met, which in Jack's mind made him the second. He was the skinny one with the crazy pinstripe suits and sneakers. No matter how many times they'd had run ins with The Doctor, and all the time they'd spent traveling with him, it was this version that Ianto could never feel totally at ease with. He was the one who'd told Jack he was wrong, and no matter how many times Jack had tried to explain that they were all the same person, there was alway that tiny hint of mistrust. More concerning was Ianto's second comment.

'He doesn't know about me.'

That much was true. It had been the regeneration after this one that had borne witness to what the TARDIS had done, giving Ianto the gift of immortality. Would he sense it, or would he be too preoccupied to notice? Perhaps if Ianto stayed close by, he'd get his wires crossed and think it was Jack he could sense. Before either of them could contemplate the notion, there was a fuzzy sensation and a low voice in their heads.

'Don't you worry about my Doctor,' the TARDIS hummed. 'He won't find out.'

They should have known. The TARDIS could see all of time. She knew very well what she would do in the future, and had technically already done, yet not done. She would keep their secret.

'What about the others?' Ianto whispered. The rest of the team knew he couldn't die either. Any one of them could accidentally spill the beans and corrupt the timeline.

'They know not to breathe a word,' the TARDIS said, having already reached into their minds and told them how important it was.

Jack squeezed his hand in a reassuring way. 'It'll be okay.'

The Doctor's expression was dark, more brooding and scary than Ianto had ever seen it, and they'd been in some bad scrapes before.

'Tell me everything.'

Everything became a very short conversation, showing him the images of the entire star system around them collapsing in on itself and the video of the Cyberman walking through the streets. Gratefully, there was further footage of the team managing to neutralise the Cyberman, though it took several blasts from their plasma weapons to bring it down. Gwen kept in communication with them at the hub, instructing them on how to go about dismantling it for transport back to the hub to be incinerated.

As soon as the team came back, The Doctor pounced on them, scanning the Cyberman with his sonic screwdriver.

'Not possible,' he muttered.

'Tell us something we don't know,' Jack said, expecting more from his oldest companion.

'No, I mean, genuinely not possible. You can't just zip across from one reality to the next. Even the TARDIS can't do that. Everything has its place in space and time. You can't just move it from one place to another.' He looked up disparagingly at Jack. 'Except you, of course.'

Ianto tensed next to Jack and he subtly grabbed Ianto's hand, squeezing it tight as an instruction to hold himself in check.

'It's happened before,' Ianto said instead. 'The ghost machine that Torchwood London had was able to let them through.'

'That was different. You people were using technology you shouldn't have to damage the integrity of the fabric that holds one reality separate and apart from the next. The Cybermen slipped through the tears created. Unless of course you've got some technology you have told me about?'

'We're not Torchwood One,' Ianto said, feeling that fierce need to defend what they did. Jack had changed the directive of this place in The Doctor's honor, and everything they'd done since had been to make things better.

The Doctor seemed to ignore the comment, lost in thought. 'Why send the first one?' he finally said.

'Testing the theory, maybe. Squeezing it through the beginnings of a hole in space time,' Jack said.

'Oh!' The Doctor cried. 'Of course! It's an anchor.'

'An anchor?'

'He's here to reel in the good ship Cyberman. A lighthouse to light the way to shore. Only now you lot have severed the rope... Oh...'

There was no argument that The Doctor's last comment was anything but good.

'What?' Jack asked, afraid to know the answer.

'What happens when the lighthouse light goes out?'

Ianto didn't like the analogy at all. 'The ship gets dashed upon the rocks.'

'Exactly. This is no longer some planned invasion about to sidle up to the dock and unload. This thing is about to come smashing right through space itself. Unchecked, unchallenged. It's sucking all the stars within a hundred light years into one spot and when it comes through...'

'Tell me there's something you can do,' Jack implored.

'I can't just wrap the TARDIS around half a million stars and drag them out of the way, if that's what you mean.'

The rest of the team stood there in silence, knowing that any involvement in the conversation was well beyond them, and frightened enough to know that anything they said was futile. If Jack and Ianto, with all their time travelling experience, couldn't fathom a solution with The Doctor's help, then no one could.

'Come on, Doctor. Think!' Jack demanded.

'What do you want me to say, Jack?' The Doctor said, growing equally irritated. 'It's impossible. It shouldn't be able to happen. Not ever. It's wrong, it's...' There was a sudden halt to The Doctor's ranting and a gleam in his eye, the spark of an idea. 'No...' he said, as if hardly believing it himself.

'You've thought of something,' Ianto said, knowing that look well from their future travels together. 'A way to stop them coming through?'

'Well, there's no guarantees of course,' The Doctor said, almost as if he was answering his own question rather than the one directed at him, still chewing over the possibility.

'No guarantees of what?' Jack said.

'Well, I'm thinking that the only way to stop an impossible thing from forcing its way through time and space is to throw something equally impossible at it.'

'What are you talking about?' Adelaide demanded, forgetting herself.

'Jack,' he replied.

'Me?'

'Your own impossibility might,' and he emphasised the word might, 'be enough to neutralise this thing before it comes through the breach it's creating.'

'You really think that will work?' Jack said, already accepting the task without considering it further.

'I'm not gonna lie. There's every chance that doing this could completely tear apart your timeline.'

'What are you saying?'

The Doctor rubbed his neck, avoiding looking directly at Jack. 'You always said you weren't sure if you were wanted to live forever.'

'Are you saying this could kill him?' Ianto asked, cutting to the chase.

'It's a very real possibility. At the very least, he could survive but be back to being mortal.'

'No,' Ianto said. 'I'm not letting you do this, Jack.'

'Ianto, we don't have a choice. It's that or risk billions of Cybermen coming to tear apart the universe.'

Ianto spun and faced The Doctor. 'You've got your TARDIS and all the knowledge of the Time Lords at your fingertips. You must have some power to stop them. Don't just sit there and let Jack be cannon fodder. You owe him more than that.'

'It's not up to me.'

'Yes, it is.'

'Ianto, it's okay,' Jack said, stepping between them.

'No, it's not okay. I didn't come all this way to lose you.' He certainly wasn't going to spend the next eternity alone without Jack. 'I'm coming with you.'

'Ianto, no.'

'Yes. You go, I go. If we die, then so be it. But we do it together.'

'Jack's right,' The Doctor said. 'You can't go. You're not like Jack. Sending you into the opening breach could be suicide.'

'Just you try and stop me. For all your supposedly worldly knowledge, you don't know a lot.' Even if he hadn't been immortal, there was no way he was letting Jack leave him here to face whatever was out there alone.

Jack squeezed his hand, beseeching him not to say any more in case he let slip the secret they'd held on to so far.

The Doctor turned and faced the rest of the team. Each of them gave him a look that said there was no way in hell they were going to argue with their boss. They'd seen too much, working with the two immortals, to believe that they couldn't somehow make the impossible, possible.

'It's pointless you going,' he said in reply. 'Only Jack's fixed point in time might be able to put on a resistance against a break in the fabric of this universe's timeline. His fixed state could be the only thing that forces shut the breach they're trying to create.'

'And then what? Does he get stuck on the other side? Trapped in some gap between universes?'

'This is beyond even what I know. I'm hoping that it's more like slapping water, and that we create a ripple effect that sets this universe back in place, but there's really no knowing.'

'Well, at least he won't be facing it alone,' Ianto replied, hoping that with their combined uniqueness, perhaps that gave them something of a chance of stopping it, and of surviving.

Jack watched their exchange with mixed emotions. He adored Ianto for standing up for him, but he felt sick at the thought that The Doctor might let him sacrifice himself.

'You don't have to do this, Ianto,' Jack said. 'Even if I don't make it, there's so much good for you do to with your life.'

'Don't be ridiculous,' he replied gruffly. 'None of it will mean anything without you. If this is something only you might be able to fix, then let me help you.'

Jack felt torn. He needed something more than just blind faith. Without realising it, his mind reached out for the TARDIS. 'What do we do?'

She didn't reply straight away, as if this was a problem even she didn't know the answer to. 'The Doctor is correct,' she finally said. 'This may be the only way.'

'What about us?' He didn't mean it to sound selfish but he had to know.

'There must be balance,' she replied.

'What she means is that we do this together,' Ianto told him.

Jack let out a long slow breath, turning to face The Doctor. 'Tell us what we have to do.'

Gwen couldn't fully appreciate the consequences of what might be about to happen. By rights, they could be inundated with Cybermen, or the world might simply implode. Either way, she wasn't going to take any chances, dragging Rhys through the hub, down to its lowest levels Awnen in her arms. She finally came to an empty corridor with a thick perspex door wedged in its side. She swiped her security pass and it hissed open, dragging Rhys inside with her.

'Gwen, will you please tell me what the hell is going on?'

'I don't know,' she replied, setting Anwen in his arms.

'Well, that helps.'

'Look, you'll be fine. There's enough food and water in here to last three months.'

'Three months? Bloody hell, Gwen!'

'Daddy swore,' Anwen chirped.

'I'm not staying in here whilst you're up there facing God only knows what.'

'Please, Rhys,' she begged him. 'I need you safe. Let me do my job.'

'And what about me? Don't I get a say?'

'Your job is to keep Anwen safe, no matter what happens.' She leaned forward and quickly kissed him.

'Mamma. Why are you crying?'

'Oh,' she sniffed and reached out to stroke her daughters hair. 'It's okay, sweetheart. Mummy is just going to miss you, that's all. You have to stay here with Daddy for a little while, okay?'

'Gwen, don't,' Rhys pleaded, knowing it was pointless.

'I'll be back, I promise,' she said before shutting the clear door and, locking it tightly. 'I love you.'

Jack and Ianto had been sitting on opposite sides of Ianto's desk in silence for what felt like an eternity, waiting for the signal that the Cybermen were close enough to the breach to attempt their plan.

'Your sister and the kids...' Jack said. Ianto swallowed hard. He'd been thinking about them too. 'There's still time to get them down here.'

'And what about Alice and Steven?' They were two hours drive away. He couldn't justify keeping his family tucked up down here when Jack's was out there, completely unprotected and unaware of the danger that was coming.

'Just because we can't protect everyone doesn't mean we should try to at least keep those closest safe,' Jack said.

'And will they be?' Ianto turned on him. 'Who knows, Jack? We could be bringing everything right down on our heads here, putting them right in the line of fire.'

'I know it's a risk.'

'And what about everyone else's families? Do we ask them to come here, too? We could be putting everyone we love in terrible danger. I'm not willing to take that chance.'

Jack knew Ianto had a valid point. It didn't help that there was nothing else they could do to ensure their safety. All they could do was try to stop this invasion before it happened. He didn't want to think about what would happen if they failed. He didn't want to think about what would happen if Ianto didn't survive this. Jack pushed up from his chair.

'Where are you going?'

'Just need some fresh air. I won't go far,' he promised.

Left alone, Ianto leaned forward on the desk, rubbing his hands over his face, wishing there was something more he could do.

Jack stood at the edge of the Plass, leaning over the railing and watching as the sky overhead grew darker and more thunderous. No one but them even knew what it meant. Around these parts, there'd just be the everyday mutterings about it being about to rain again. Gods but they loved to discuss the inevitability of rain, and then proceed to complain about it. Would that it were only rain, and not the very distinct possibility that the world was about to end.

Perhaps they should be warning their colleagues at UNIT, and the various Torchwood outposts dotted around the globe, enabling them to prepare for what was coming. Then again, what could they do to stop an army of Cybermen? On a worldwide population, they'd be outnumbered five to one at least, and that would be before they started converting.

There was movement beside him, and he looked across to see Jez leaning over the railing next to him. He appreciated the gesture.

'Medically speaking, what's the best way to obliterate the brain?' Jack asked. 'Is it a gunshot to the temple, mouth, or under the chin?'

Jez grimaced at the morbidity of the question. It brought him back to his days as a trainee paramedic, and the first suicide he'd ever attended. He'd never seen so much blood and brain matter spattered across a bathroom. How could so much material fit inside such a small space as the human skull?

'Definitely the mouth,' he replied, remembering how little of the back of the head had remained. The face however had looked pristine. At just the right angle it looked like there was nothing at all wrong with him.

'If they get here, and there's no other option, you put that gun in your mouth and end it,' Jack said. 'You do the same for anyone else with you.'

'It won't come to that,' Jez assured him.

'They only need the brains to convert and create more soldiers. You'd be trapped inside that emotionless monster for eternity. Better to die human than to live like that forever.'

He'd never seen Jack like this, so completely defeated. Could things really be that bad?

'I've seen a lot of batshit crazy stuff since I met you,' Jez said, 'but I've never seen you give up on anything, no matter how bad it is. You and Ianto, you're like the dreamteam, man. I've seen you guys kick some major alien butt.'

Jack stood up from the railing and looked at him, blue grey eyes stormy like the sky above them. They had done a lot of things together, and there was no one he trusted to have by his side more when he was up against it. Ianto was right; there was no way he could do this on his own. 'I haven't given up. I just need you to understand what we're facing if worst comes to worst.'

'It won't. Besides, what would they want with my brain anyway? Del is always saying it's full of nothing but sawdust. Their army wouldn't stand a chance with strawheads like me.'

Jack had to laugh at that. 'Half the Welsh valleys would be the same, but don't tell Ianto I said that.'

Johnson leaned in the doorway of Ianto's office, just watching him staring off into space. It was an unusual expression on a man she'd come to know as a distinct workaholic, and never sitting idle for more than a moment. He knew she wanted to say something, and nothing he probably wanted to hear which was the only reason he didn't immediately offer for her to come in.

'You don't have to do this,' she said.

'Believe me, I really do.'

'You don't think he should know?' she said, nodding her head back in the general direction of the TARDIS. 'You know, about how you can't die?'

'He can't know. Time lines,' he said.

'He's traveled all over time and space but he's not allowed to know?'

'It's... complicated. It's a future version of him that knows how I ended up this way. If he finds out in his past, well, it could change the time lines in ways we can't even imagine. It could change me. I might never become immortal, in which case, judging by the amount of times I've died since, probably means at some point back in my past, I'll be killed.'

'And that's not confusing at all,' she said, pushing herself up from the door and walking towards him. 'Knowing might help.'

'And it might hinder. It's a risk, I know, but it's a risk telling him, too.'

'Sure. Now he just thinks you're mad for attempting this because he's convinced you'll die.'

Ianto smirked in spite of himself. 'No one ever said this job was easy.'

They didn't have to wait for word from The Doctor that it was time. Ianto was about ready to throw up, every nerve in his body fizzling from the impending disturbance in the air. When he saw Jack again, the look on his face was one of determination, but there was also a tenderness there, as if he wanted to beg Ianto not to do this.

The Doctor grabbed Jack by the wrist and pointed his sonic screwdriver at Jack's vortex manipulator.

'You only had to ask,' Jack said, always hating the way he treated the device with such disdain.

'Don't get excited,' The Doctor said. 'I'm programming it for a one way trip.'

'I hope you mean a return trip,' Jack said, flipping it open and seeing it light up with functions he hadn't seen for years. The things he could do if only he could convince The Doctor to fix it permanently.

'I've reversed the locator programming from the Cyberman, so that now you're anchored to the incoming signal. It should be enough to pull you through the breach.'

'Then what?' Jack asked.

'I dunno,' The Doctor replied honestly.

Ianto cast a look around at his team, stood there feeling useless, all their hopes resting on him. He'd never felt more hopelessly ill-equipped to lead them against the unknown. 'If this doesn't work...' he let the words trail off.

'We know what to do,' Gwen said, giving him a reassuring look, trying to put on a brave face. The rest of them nodded in silence. Last of all, he came to face Jack, wondering if this would be the last time they saw each other.

'Don't die,' Jack said, reaching out to touch his face.

'Promise,' Ianto replied, reaching up his own hand to touch Jack's. Jack took it in his own and placed it over his vortex manipulator.

'Hold tight,' he said.

'And never let go,' Ianto added.

Ianto felt the tug on his stomach, as if someone has placed a hook in his bellybutton and was trying to turning him inside out with it. Jack had warned him about this, having never travelled through space without the TARDIS around him, protecting him from the rigors of travel.

He doesn't know where he is, only that he can't feel himself, as if he has no body at all. There's just a feeling that he exists here on some level, and that somewhere near by, he can feel Jack's equally strong presence.

'I'm here.' He doesn't hear the voice so much as he feels it.

There's nothing here, wherever here is. The gap between realities has no matter, no mass, no darkness or light. There are no laws of physics at all in this place; just an empty space where their energies should not even exist. Only on one side or the other, can they retake any semblance of form. Here there's simply nothing.

It's black, then white, then swirls of grey and back to black again, forever transitioning from one hue to another, but bereft of all colour except black and white and everything in between. It reminds him of the sky, dark and brooding, swirling with menace. Even here he can sense that something is coming, and that it's so close now it's all consuming.

He reaches out and somehow connects with Jack, feeling their energy bound together. They've always been bound to one another, even before the TARDIS made it physical.  They're a wall, he realises, the only thing between the home they love and the thing that is coming to destroy it. In their own reality, they're fixed in place, but here there's no knowing what might happen. They've stepped over the threshold, standing on the precipice between one existence and another. He suddenly realises that now they're here, they might not be able to go back. For now though it's enough to know that he feels like he's standing firm, and that Jack is by his side, standing there with him as an invisible wind whips up and hits him full force.

'I love you,' the voice repeats over and over in his head, like a mantra.

It's here. It's the last thought he has before bracing for impact.

There's a whole bunch of nothing, though he's not sure how he knows that. The first thought is that he's somewhere soft and warm. His head feels like it's resting on a cloud. Maybe it is. The rest of him is indistinct. Perhaps he's just a head now with no body attached. He can't feel it, though that could just be from a lack of movement. The overriding sensation though is one of exhaustion. If he's been sleeping then it hasn't made a difference. If he's still sleeping, then he doesn't want to wake up, letting himself drift back down into the nothingness.

Wakefulness comes again again for him, but though he can sense he must be somewhere and that there is the occasional sound somewhere above him, he feels too weary to try and find out where he is. His eyelids feel like lead and he couldn't open them even if he wanted to. Instead he lets the darkness come for him again, over and over.

Conscious awareness returns. It's a little game he's been playing, letting sound and sensation hover somewhere just above him. All he really wants is to sleep again. It's just never enough; five minutes or five hours, however long, always dreamless. All is quiet around him until he hears a voice.

'I need you to wake up for me.'

He was awake. He didn't want to be, but he was. What more did the voice want?

'Please open those gorgeous eyes for me.'

Oh. That's what it wanted. They were just so heavy, though. He didn't think he could. Something else maybe. He tried moving something, anything. He felt his leg shift slightly under the covers. Still attached to his head. That was good. He squirmed a little more, feeling the rest of his body coming back to life. Still his eyelids remained resolutely stuck together.

'Ianto?' A hand squeezed his. He knew that voice. He had to open his eyes to know it was really there. It took effort, but he finally managed it. There was Jack, smiling down at him.

'Hey, sleepy head.' Jack brushed a hand over his face. 'How are you?'

'Tired.' It wasn't what he wanted to say, but it was all he felt.

'I know. But now I know you're okay, you can sleep as much as you want to.'

Ianto didn't argue, letting his eyes fall shut.

He couldn't tell how long he slept, nor how many times he drifted in and out, but always Jack was there when he did wake, until he finally felt refreshed enough to keep his eyes open long enough to have a conversation.

'What happened?' In between bouts of dreamless sleep, memories had started creeping back in, until all he was left with was the nagging feeling that some of his memories were definitely missing.

'We stopped them.'

'How?'

Jack chuckled. 'Wish I knew.' His own recollections were somewhat blank on the matter. He remembered the feeling of the approaching energy force, entwining his own energy with Ianto's, and then nothing. He'd woken up in a hospital bed, feeling utterly exhausted, Jez hovering over him, making a fuss.

'He's awake?' came a voice from somewhere further away. Johnson, he realised.

'Finally,' Jack replied.

'How long?' Ianto asked.

'A month,' Jack said. 'Thought you were going to sleep through until Easter.'

'Says you who was out of it for two weeks,' Johnson replied, coming into view, smiling down at him. Her face was that much kinder when she smiled.

'Everyone needs their beauty sleep. I just need less than most,' Jack joked.

A month? Why did he still feel so tired then?

'The Doc will want to check you over before he goes, but I think everything's gonna be just fine,' Jack said.

Naturally, everyone made a fuss once he was out of bed, which he hated, Jack most of all, mothering him and making him sit down all the time to rest.

'Hey, I was completely bushwhacked when I woke up,' Jack said in his defense. 'I've had two weeks to recover. You've been up for two minutes.'

Recover. He hadn't even thought about his current state after whatever had happened. He felt that familiar pull inside him that tethered his life force to Jack's, and he knew that they were both still immortal. They still had each other forever. That singular thought did more to speed his own recovery than anything.

'Here he is, man of the hour,' The Doctor said, cheeky smile returning as he shoved his hands into his pockets. 'You should be dead.'

'I missed you too,' Ianto quipped, feeling more himself now that he was surrounded by the people who were practically his family.

'No, seriously. Jack I can understand, but you?'

'Just lucky, I guess,' he replied, watching for the hidden smirks from everyone else who was already in on the secret.

'Finally managed to do something right, hey Doc?' Jack joked.

The Doctor looked at them and that serious expression returned. 'I know I said you were wrong, but perhaps I was wrong too.' Funnily, it was Ianto he looked at as he said it, as if he needed to apologise more to Ianto than he did to Jack. It meant the world to him to hear The Doctor say it.

'Either way, it looks like your stuck with us,' Jack said, grinning.

'Us?'

'For the moment,' Ianto added, resting a hand on the small of Jack's back.

'That's what I meant,' Jack said.

The Doctor squinted at them, a brief look of concern passing over his face. 'Can I assume Torchwood can look after things here for a while without wrecking anything?'

'I think it's safe to say we can handle whatever the universe decides to throw as us,' Jack said, wrapping an arm around his lover.

'It's not the universe I'm worried about,' he said, giving Jack the eye.

'I'll keep him in line,' Ianto promised. 'I am his boss, after all.'

'And husband,' Jack added, pulling him tighter.

The Doctor scoffed. 'Good luck with that,' he said, before finally turning away to trundle up the gangway and into the welcoming doors of the TARDIS.

'What do you suppose he meant by that?' Ianto asked.

'Oh, I don't know,' Jack said. 'I think he doubts your amazingness. Not me, though.'

Comments

[jo02]

what a great adventure! I love all these characters, old and new.

[bk_forever]

Wow, amazing! You're really good at drama and potential end of the world scenarios, loved the descriptions of how Jack and Ianto could feel the danger approaching, as well as what the cybermen were doing, all the stars getting pulled together. Also loved the climax, what they experienced when they were thrown into the breach. So well thought out and so detailed! I was glued to my computer screen and on the edge of my seat!

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I enjoyed writing the tension of the moment where none of them know what they're facing, how to stop it and how bad things might get. There's a lot of fear and anxiety in the unknown, even for experienced Torchwood people.