Fffc May Special Daily Challenge (May 26th) - Scorched earth

[m_findlow]

Title: Scorched earth
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, the Doctor (Twelve)
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,163 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for fffc May Special Daily Challenge - May 26th - Mark of fire (Richard Phillips)
Summary: Jack's destination is not what any of them expected.

Ianto found it hard to mask the look of disappointment on his face as he opened the TARDIS door and came face to face with the outside world. Jack had spoken so highly of this place that he'd made it sound as if there was no place more exotic or beautiful in the entire universe. What confronted him certainly lived up to its expectation to shock him.

Jack bungled into the back of him as he'd come to a standstill on the threshold.

'What's the hold up? Are we going or not?'

'Are you sure this is the right place?' Ianto asked.

Jack gripped him by the shoulders and looked out over them, gobsmacked by what he saw. He expected to see huge towering spires, so white they shimmered like they were made of silver, crusted with jewels in every colour. Throughout the city were the most sparkling blue canals, and the boats that punted along them were painted in every imaginable hue. There should have been music and song, birds in the sky and trees greener than any he'd ever seen anywhere in the entire universe. Instead there was noting by red skies tainted with black, crumbling ruins and huge cracked trenches where once the cities waters had flowed.

'Doctor, this isn't the right place,' he called back.

'Of course it is, though I don't know why you wanted to come here. It's nothing but a wasteland.'

'No,' Jack shook his head. 'This was one of the greatest cities in all the universe.'

'Was,' the Doctor replied. 'Hasn't been for a hundred million millenia.'

'No,' Jack said again, still in shock at the sight of the ruins. 'I was here before, not far from my own timeline. I knew the people who lived here. They were good friends.' Ianto could hear the devastation in his husband's voice. He hadn't just known them, he'd developed some deep relationships, Ianto could tell. He tentatively reached down for Ianto's hand and coaxed him forward, his feet crunching on the hard dry earth.

'I don't understand,' Ianto said. 'If Jack was here only a few years ago, how could it have been gone all that time?'

The Doctor reached down and picked up a pinch of red dirt and held it up to his sunglasses, examining it. 'Traces of firestorm,' he muttered.

Jack twirled at that, nearly ripping Ianto's arm from its socket in the process. 'Firestorm? That's illegal on just about every planet.'

'Just about,' the Doctor said. 'Someone has gone back in time and used it to wipe this civilization from existence.'

'Well then, we'll just go back and stop them,' Jack said, sounding incensed.

'You can't just go back and change things, Jack,' the Doctor said, pulling his sunglasses off and surveying the ruins for himself. 'You're not a Time Agent anymore, not that you should have been doing that sort of thing back then, either. Why the Proclamation ever gave you those powers is beyond me.'

Ianto felt Jack tense. For the most part they got along famously, but every now and then they touched on a sore spot, and Jack's previous occupation was one of them.

'Oh, but it's okay for you to go back and change stuff, though, isn't it? When it's your friends it's a different story.'

'Jack,' Ianto pleaded, trying to calm his lover.

'No, Ianto. He's going to explain to me why it's okay for someone to flaunt intergalactic law, but it's not okay for us to enforce it. You might not think much of Time Agents because, ostensibly of them ended up corrupted by the power they held,'

The Doctor snorted. 'That's an understatement.'

'But we did a lot of good,' Jack continued. 'I'm proud of what we achieved. Great cities like this exist because we kept the peace when there was no one else. I've been dropped into more war zones than I can count, and what thanks did the Time Lords give us for all the risks we took, holed up on your own little world, pretending you were better than the rest of us?' Jack was properly angry now.

'That's a mighty chip you've got on your shoulder there, Jack,' the Doctor replied.

Ianto grabbed Jack just a split second before he made to lash out. 'Jack, stop!' Not only did he not what Jack to hurt the Doctor, something he might later come to regret, he didn't want to enrage the Doctor to a point where he might leave them stranded here.

'It's lucky Ianto is smarter than you, Jack, and a lot less cantankerous,' the Doctor said.

'Don't confuse my restraint for apathy,' Ianto warned him, letting a little bit of that fiery Welsh temper make itself known. 'Can't you see that this is obviously very upsetting?'

'I don't need you to speak for me, Ianto,' Jack said.

'Well, I am, so shut up.'

'For your information,' the Doctor began, 'before Jack let his childish tantrum take over, I was going to say that we can't go back and change things.... all of the time. Whilst you've been lecturing me, I've been checking timelines. On this one occasion we can go back try to reverse the anomaly that has damaged the timeline.'

With those few words, Ianto felt all of the fight ebb out of Jack's body as he continued to hold it.

'Really?'

The Doctor rolled his eyes. 'If Jack is impressed, then it must be something worth seeing, and more importantly, saving.'

Jack was out of Ianto’s grip in a flash, dashing forward to wrap the Doctor up in a massive hug. 'Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!'

'Off!' The Doctor yelled, trying to extricate himself  from Jack and regain his composure. 'Honestly, he's like a poorly trained puppy. How on earth do you put up with him?'

'Someone has to,' Ianto said, stepping forward, retaking Jack's hand.

'We're really doing this?' Jack asked.

'The TARDIS doesn't like going that far normally,' the Doctor qualified.

'She'll make an exception, I know she will,' Jack said, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.

'Hmph,' he muttered. 'Always an exception for you, isn't there?'

'What can I say? I'm exceptional. Oh, Ianto,' he said, pulling him close. 'I promise you, once we fix things, you're going to be absolutely blown away.'

'Or if we don't, we might just be blown away,' he replied.

The Doctor grinned, a rare thing with this regeneration. 'l like your realist attitude. Such a delightful counterbalance to Jack's overenthusiasm. In this occasion however, let's give Jack exactly what he wants.'

'You're the boss,' Ianto said. 'And this place is miserable, so let's go. I'd much prefer to visit Jack's version.'

'I have to warn you, though,' the Doctor said, 'if these folk have firestorm, they're not nice, and it could be very dangerous.'

'So, business as usual then?' Ianto quipped. 'No such thing as a relaxing summer holiday without a little life threatening peril first.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Yay! So glad they're going to fix it. Why would anyone vandalise and destroy such a beautiful place! They'll regret even making the attempt.