Fic: Future-Perfect-In-Past, chapter 2/6
Mar. 8th, 2009 04:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
veldeiaTitle: Future-Perfect-In-Past
Author: Veldeia
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Spoilers: All the way through S4 of Doctor Who and S2 of Torchwood. Takes place post Journey's End for the Doctor, but after A Day in the Death for the Torchwood team.
Characters/Pairings: 10th Doctor, Jack, Ianto, Owen, Tosh, Gwen. Slight Jack/Ianto.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I'm sure that somewhere out there, there's a wonderful parallel universe where I own all the stuff I write about - but it definitely isn't this one.
Author's Note: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cytherea999 for the beta, and to my anonymous alpha for everything.
Summary: Dead Weevils and an unconscious Doctor amount to a mystery more challenging and less straightforward than usual for the Torchwood team.
2.
There were no other Time Lords left, no one who knew the few odd substances that had unexpected effects on him, but surely, he couldn't have done this to himself. He hadn't seen the attacker, so technically, it was possible. He could go back in time and hit himself in the head, but that would not be a good idea. Since the universe wasn't unravelling around them at the moment, he was pretty sure he hadn't done that.
Of course, there was the other, part-human him, but he was in the alternate universe, with Rose, forever separated from this world. Donna would've known, too, for that short while when she'd had the mind of a Time Lord, but that was gone now. Besides, it wasn't really "now", because at this point in time, none of those things had even happened yet. Not to mention that he couldn't imagine why they would've wanted to do this to him, even if it wasn't impossible. Why knock him unconscious only to leave him there for Torchwood to find?
Rose and Donna. Thoughts too painful to linger on. He needed to stick to the present. Keep running, as always, because it was the only way to keep himself sane.
"Could this be what killed the Weevils?" Jack suggested.
"I doubt it," the dead man, Owen, said. The Doctor tried to avoid looking at him. He was something so twisted and unnatural that it almost made him feel physically sick. To say that it'd been a shock to wake up to that sight would be a huge understatement.
"What's a Weevil?" the Doctor asked.
"This is. Cardiff's resident aliens." Owen pulled out a container from the wall, revealing a corpse: an alien with thick, pale brown skin, a sloping forehead and large fangs. Not a species the Doctor was familiar with.
"If it's the same thing, would it have shown up in your tests?" Jack asked.
"Not when I wasn't looking for it," Owen told him, tapping on the computer to open a file. "Anyway, we're talking about a fruit you can buy from the nearest grocery store. It's not exactly poisonous, unless you eat a lot of them and are suffering from kidney failure."
Jack raised his eyebrows at the Doctor.
He shook his head in answer, looking at the test results, a crude but true analysis of the alien's blood. "Completely different metabolism. Nothing wrong with my kidneys, and no, it's not what killed your Weevil, either."
Jack's mobile bleeped, and he put a hand to his earpiece. "Ianto? Oh, okay. On our way." He looked at the Doctor and Owen. "Gwen and Ianto are at the station, and the police just got a report of another body, a slightly different case, by the sound of it. Violent death."
Gwen and Ianto. The names were familiar - the Doctor had met them, but even though it had been in his past, it was still in the future for everyone else. They hadn't met him yet, and they couldn't. He had been aiming for early 2009 and had ended up in early 2008 instead, so he'd missed his mark by one year. Hardly unusual for him, but it meant that he'd have to be very careful, or things could go badly wrong.
"I want to see this for myself. You sure you're all right now, Doctor? And not in any danger?" Jack went on.
"Yes, I'm fine. Carambola isn't exactly poisonous to me, either, just puts me to a deep sleep. Interesting fruit, that star fruit. Anyway, thanks for all your help, but I think I should get going now. If you could give me a lift?"
"Sure thing. Owen, Tosh, let's go."
The Doctor followed them to the Torchwood SUV, contemplating Jack's two team members. He knew Jack had lost two of his team during a crisis not long before the Daleks had stolen Earth. Apparently, it was these two - the Doctor had never seen Owen before, and as for Toshiko Sato, he had met her once in his previous regeneration, but never since. There was nothing he could do to help them. Sad as it was, the truth was that where Owen was concerned, it was a good thing. He really wasn't supposed to be alive anymore, his timeline was supposed to be at an end already.
Unless... Maybe someone had wanted to bring the Doctor to this time and knocked him out because they wanted him to save these two - but no, he couldn't. Tosh and Owen would die, in circumstances that had nothing to do with him, and he could not intervene. Better to leave this time and place before he made a mess of things.
"I'll just drop you off where I picked you up, that OK? Your ship should be nearby," Jack said.
"Yes, very good."
"So, that rift anomaly, that was actually you, wasn't it?" Tosh asked, sounding impressed.
"I use rift energy as fuel," the Doctor admitted.
"That's amazing! Of course, there's a massive amount of energy in the rift, but to be able to harness it like that - the ship must be extraordinary."
"Oh, you have no idea. She's unique," Jack said warmly.
Once Jack had parked the car, he told Owen and Tosh he'd be back in a minute, and stepped out with the Doctor. The Doctor didn't recognise the place, but Jack lead him around the corner to a familiar-looking parking lot. The TARDIS stood at the far side of it. Doctor could even point out the exact spot where he'd blacked out, right there, next to that red car.
"It was good to see you, even just in passing," Jack said, his hands on the Doctor's arms. "You sure you don't want to stay a little longer? Figure out who attacked you?"
"I'll have to do that on my own. I can't stay here, Jack. I'm from your future. I could cause terrible damage if I did. But I'll be seeing you, sooner or later."
"The future, eh?" Jack repeated, nodding slowly. He looked at the Doctor a bit oddly, probably taking in the fact that he was all alone and hadn't as much as mentioned any companions. "Hope everything turns out all right. Take care." Jack gave the Doctor a quick, tight hug, and walked away.
The Doctor headed towards the TARDIS, his hands in his jacket pockets, searching for the key. He couldn't find it. He stopped in front of his ship, and went through every single spacious pocket in his clothing. Nothing. No key, no spare key, even though he always had at least one of those hidden somewhere. No matter. The TARDIS would let him in, she knew him. He pushed at the door, but it wouldn't budge. He even tried snapping his fingers, silly as it was. Nothing. The door stayed shut.
He noticed that someone had stuck a Post-it note on the door. He picked it up. It was written in an unfamiliar hand that, based on his knowledge of graphology, he judged to be female. At least that made it clear that he hadn't done this to himself, unless he'd regenerated into someone with girly handwriting. Or a girl - oh no, no way, he thought, in a mental voice that rather sounded like Donna.
He shook his head at himself, and read the note. It said,
"Sorry,
You need to stay a while longer.
Don't worry, you'll get your keys back,
once the time is right."
The Doctor crumpled the piece of paper, stuffed it in his pocket, and ran back to where Jack had parked the car, but of course, it was too late. The Torchwood team had already left.
**********
Containing this case was going to be a nightmare, Ianto thought, as he and Gwen shooed away the police team who'd arrived at the scene first. Half the Cardiff Police Force had either seen a Weevil, or heard about them by now. Torchwood might have to resort to putting retcon in the water supply once again, something none of them were too fond of doing.
"It's different, all right," Gwen said, kneeling by the body. The signs of violence were obvious on it. The other two Weevils had been physically unharmed but dead, this one had bruises and scratches all over its body and bloodstains on its coveralls.
"Oi! Give room for the expert," Owen called out, pushing them aside to get a better view of the corpse. Jack and Tosh followed right behind him. "Finally, something nice and easy. Cause of death: got in a fight and had its neck broken."
"The real question is, who or what broke it," Jack said.
"And here we go again," Owen complained. "Can't tell without an autopsy, and might not be able to tell at all. Might've been a human. Can't have been another Weevil, since there are no fang marks. This could be just an isolated, unrelated case," he suggested.
"We've got three dead Weevils within a day, there's no way this can be unrelated," Jack said. "Owen, Tosh, see what you can find out about this one and pack it up, we'll need to transport it to the Hub. Ianto, Gwen, with me, we'll go search for clues."
Ianto looked around. They were in a narrow, silent side alley, probably the second most common type of place for this sort of thing, derelict warehouses being even more common. Jack headed straight for the manhole and wrenched the cover open.
"Weevil-hunting in the middle of the day. This feels wrong," Ianto noted.
"Not Weevil-hunting," Jack replied. "Weevil-killer-hunting. Anti-Weevil spray, tranq guns and sidearms at ready? Off we go!" he said, and leaped into the hole.
It was dark and quiet down there, as always, every day, every time of the day. As they pointed around with their torches, they saw a trail of purplish blood beginning at around the entrance, leading deeper into the tunnels.
"So, what did we miss?" Ianto asked Jack in a low voice, as they followed the trail. "That rift anomaly?"
"Just a visit from an old friend. Nothing you need to worry about."
"Some friend, huh, to appear through the rift," Gwen said.
"Shh!" Jack said, stopping in his tracks, gesturing at the junction some ten feet ahead of them. The blood trail disappeared into the left-hand tunnel, and they could hear a low growling, definitely not a typical Weevil sound.
Jack lead the way, pointing his torch around the corner. Almost instantly, he leaped backwards, hurriedly motioning at the others to retreat. An alien followed him, taking running steps.
The creature was unlike anything Ianto had seen before: humanoid, about the size of a Weevil, with somewhat similar skin, but instead of a mouth full of sharp fangs, it had a mass of tentacles. Its eyes gleamed a fierce red in the dim light.
The next few seconds were chaotic. They were all shooting tranq darts at the alien, and Jack was shouting, trying to reason with it, but none of it seemed to have any effect. Without warning, the alien raised its hand, holding a white orb of some sort, and placed it against Jack's head. Jack was instantly enveloped in a bright flash of lighting, groaning in pain. That must've been what had killed the Weevils - an alien energy of some sort. Explained the lack of an obvious cause of death.
Ianto didn't think about what he was doing. His hand grabbed the pistol as if with a will of its own, and pointed it over Jack's convulsing shoulder, straight at the alien's forehead. He pulled the trigger.
Both Jack and the alien collapsed to the ground, purple blood and who knew what alien brain matter splattering over them.
After several seconds of what would've been silence if not for the deafening echo of the point-blank gunshot echoing in Ianto's ears, Jack sat up, gasping. "Thanks, Ianto. Now, let's get out of here before anything else shows up."
Hauling the corpse through the corridors and up and out of the manhole was a tedious task. Luckily, they were able to do it in peace, with no more angry creatures attacking them. They loaded the dead Weevil and the dead unknown alien into the back of the SUV and drove back to the Hub.
Half an hour later, Ianto returned to his desk at the Hub's back entrance, showered and changed. He did his best to hang on to the thoughts of warm water and Jack's even warmer body against his, because he didn't want to think about what he'd done before that. He'd shot that alien in cold blood, without hesitation - but he'd done it for Jack. He couldn't stand watching Jack in pain. And the alien had obviously been dangerous. He'd done the right thing, even Jack had said so. Hold on to the pleasant thoughts. Jack's hand in his hair, wandering down along his spine...
Ianto was yanked away from his happy place when the door opened, letting in a tall, thin man dressed in brown, his brown hair sticking up in all directions. "Hello, sorry, I'm looking for Torchwood. This is the entrance, right?" he said.
Ianto sat up straight and peered at the man, carefully keeping his face blank. "I'm sorry, sir - Torchwood? What's that?"
The man frowned at him, his lips stopping in a pout before he went on to say, "Oh. I know you. You're Ianto Jones. Oh, no. No, no, no. This is bad."
Chapter 3
Author: Veldeia
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Spoilers: All the way through S4 of Doctor Who and S2 of Torchwood. Takes place post Journey's End for the Doctor, but after A Day in the Death for the Torchwood team.
Characters/Pairings: 10th Doctor, Jack, Ianto, Owen, Tosh, Gwen. Slight Jack/Ianto.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I'm sure that somewhere out there, there's a wonderful parallel universe where I own all the stuff I write about - but it definitely isn't this one.
Author's Note: Thanks to
cytherea999 for the beta, and to my anonymous alpha for everything.Summary: Dead Weevils and an unconscious Doctor amount to a mystery more challenging and less straightforward than usual for the Torchwood team.
2.
There were no other Time Lords left, no one who knew the few odd substances that had unexpected effects on him, but surely, he couldn't have done this to himself. He hadn't seen the attacker, so technically, it was possible. He could go back in time and hit himself in the head, but that would not be a good idea. Since the universe wasn't unravelling around them at the moment, he was pretty sure he hadn't done that.
Of course, there was the other, part-human him, but he was in the alternate universe, with Rose, forever separated from this world. Donna would've known, too, for that short while when she'd had the mind of a Time Lord, but that was gone now. Besides, it wasn't really "now", because at this point in time, none of those things had even happened yet. Not to mention that he couldn't imagine why they would've wanted to do this to him, even if it wasn't impossible. Why knock him unconscious only to leave him there for Torchwood to find?
Rose and Donna. Thoughts too painful to linger on. He needed to stick to the present. Keep running, as always, because it was the only way to keep himself sane.
"Could this be what killed the Weevils?" Jack suggested.
"I doubt it," the dead man, Owen, said. The Doctor tried to avoid looking at him. He was something so twisted and unnatural that it almost made him feel physically sick. To say that it'd been a shock to wake up to that sight would be a huge understatement.
"What's a Weevil?" the Doctor asked.
"This is. Cardiff's resident aliens." Owen pulled out a container from the wall, revealing a corpse: an alien with thick, pale brown skin, a sloping forehead and large fangs. Not a species the Doctor was familiar with.
"If it's the same thing, would it have shown up in your tests?" Jack asked.
"Not when I wasn't looking for it," Owen told him, tapping on the computer to open a file. "Anyway, we're talking about a fruit you can buy from the nearest grocery store. It's not exactly poisonous, unless you eat a lot of them and are suffering from kidney failure."
Jack raised his eyebrows at the Doctor.
He shook his head in answer, looking at the test results, a crude but true analysis of the alien's blood. "Completely different metabolism. Nothing wrong with my kidneys, and no, it's not what killed your Weevil, either."
Jack's mobile bleeped, and he put a hand to his earpiece. "Ianto? Oh, okay. On our way." He looked at the Doctor and Owen. "Gwen and Ianto are at the station, and the police just got a report of another body, a slightly different case, by the sound of it. Violent death."
Gwen and Ianto. The names were familiar - the Doctor had met them, but even though it had been in his past, it was still in the future for everyone else. They hadn't met him yet, and they couldn't. He had been aiming for early 2009 and had ended up in early 2008 instead, so he'd missed his mark by one year. Hardly unusual for him, but it meant that he'd have to be very careful, or things could go badly wrong.
"I want to see this for myself. You sure you're all right now, Doctor? And not in any danger?" Jack went on.
"Yes, I'm fine. Carambola isn't exactly poisonous to me, either, just puts me to a deep sleep. Interesting fruit, that star fruit. Anyway, thanks for all your help, but I think I should get going now. If you could give me a lift?"
"Sure thing. Owen, Tosh, let's go."
The Doctor followed them to the Torchwood SUV, contemplating Jack's two team members. He knew Jack had lost two of his team during a crisis not long before the Daleks had stolen Earth. Apparently, it was these two - the Doctor had never seen Owen before, and as for Toshiko Sato, he had met her once in his previous regeneration, but never since. There was nothing he could do to help them. Sad as it was, the truth was that where Owen was concerned, it was a good thing. He really wasn't supposed to be alive anymore, his timeline was supposed to be at an end already.
Unless... Maybe someone had wanted to bring the Doctor to this time and knocked him out because they wanted him to save these two - but no, he couldn't. Tosh and Owen would die, in circumstances that had nothing to do with him, and he could not intervene. Better to leave this time and place before he made a mess of things.
"I'll just drop you off where I picked you up, that OK? Your ship should be nearby," Jack said.
"Yes, very good."
"So, that rift anomaly, that was actually you, wasn't it?" Tosh asked, sounding impressed.
"I use rift energy as fuel," the Doctor admitted.
"That's amazing! Of course, there's a massive amount of energy in the rift, but to be able to harness it like that - the ship must be extraordinary."
"Oh, you have no idea. She's unique," Jack said warmly.
Once Jack had parked the car, he told Owen and Tosh he'd be back in a minute, and stepped out with the Doctor. The Doctor didn't recognise the place, but Jack lead him around the corner to a familiar-looking parking lot. The TARDIS stood at the far side of it. Doctor could even point out the exact spot where he'd blacked out, right there, next to that red car.
"It was good to see you, even just in passing," Jack said, his hands on the Doctor's arms. "You sure you don't want to stay a little longer? Figure out who attacked you?"
"I'll have to do that on my own. I can't stay here, Jack. I'm from your future. I could cause terrible damage if I did. But I'll be seeing you, sooner or later."
"The future, eh?" Jack repeated, nodding slowly. He looked at the Doctor a bit oddly, probably taking in the fact that he was all alone and hadn't as much as mentioned any companions. "Hope everything turns out all right. Take care." Jack gave the Doctor a quick, tight hug, and walked away.
The Doctor headed towards the TARDIS, his hands in his jacket pockets, searching for the key. He couldn't find it. He stopped in front of his ship, and went through every single spacious pocket in his clothing. Nothing. No key, no spare key, even though he always had at least one of those hidden somewhere. No matter. The TARDIS would let him in, she knew him. He pushed at the door, but it wouldn't budge. He even tried snapping his fingers, silly as it was. Nothing. The door stayed shut.
He noticed that someone had stuck a Post-it note on the door. He picked it up. It was written in an unfamiliar hand that, based on his knowledge of graphology, he judged to be female. At least that made it clear that he hadn't done this to himself, unless he'd regenerated into someone with girly handwriting. Or a girl - oh no, no way, he thought, in a mental voice that rather sounded like Donna.
He shook his head at himself, and read the note. It said,
"Sorry,
You need to stay a while longer.
Don't worry, you'll get your keys back,
once the time is right."
The Doctor crumpled the piece of paper, stuffed it in his pocket, and ran back to where Jack had parked the car, but of course, it was too late. The Torchwood team had already left.
Containing this case was going to be a nightmare, Ianto thought, as he and Gwen shooed away the police team who'd arrived at the scene first. Half the Cardiff Police Force had either seen a Weevil, or heard about them by now. Torchwood might have to resort to putting retcon in the water supply once again, something none of them were too fond of doing.
"It's different, all right," Gwen said, kneeling by the body. The signs of violence were obvious on it. The other two Weevils had been physically unharmed but dead, this one had bruises and scratches all over its body and bloodstains on its coveralls.
"Oi! Give room for the expert," Owen called out, pushing them aside to get a better view of the corpse. Jack and Tosh followed right behind him. "Finally, something nice and easy. Cause of death: got in a fight and had its neck broken."
"The real question is, who or what broke it," Jack said.
"And here we go again," Owen complained. "Can't tell without an autopsy, and might not be able to tell at all. Might've been a human. Can't have been another Weevil, since there are no fang marks. This could be just an isolated, unrelated case," he suggested.
"We've got three dead Weevils within a day, there's no way this can be unrelated," Jack said. "Owen, Tosh, see what you can find out about this one and pack it up, we'll need to transport it to the Hub. Ianto, Gwen, with me, we'll go search for clues."
Ianto looked around. They were in a narrow, silent side alley, probably the second most common type of place for this sort of thing, derelict warehouses being even more common. Jack headed straight for the manhole and wrenched the cover open.
"Weevil-hunting in the middle of the day. This feels wrong," Ianto noted.
"Not Weevil-hunting," Jack replied. "Weevil-killer-hunting. Anti-Weevil spray, tranq guns and sidearms at ready? Off we go!" he said, and leaped into the hole.
It was dark and quiet down there, as always, every day, every time of the day. As they pointed around with their torches, they saw a trail of purplish blood beginning at around the entrance, leading deeper into the tunnels.
"So, what did we miss?" Ianto asked Jack in a low voice, as they followed the trail. "That rift anomaly?"
"Just a visit from an old friend. Nothing you need to worry about."
"Some friend, huh, to appear through the rift," Gwen said.
"Shh!" Jack said, stopping in his tracks, gesturing at the junction some ten feet ahead of them. The blood trail disappeared into the left-hand tunnel, and they could hear a low growling, definitely not a typical Weevil sound.
Jack lead the way, pointing his torch around the corner. Almost instantly, he leaped backwards, hurriedly motioning at the others to retreat. An alien followed him, taking running steps.
The creature was unlike anything Ianto had seen before: humanoid, about the size of a Weevil, with somewhat similar skin, but instead of a mouth full of sharp fangs, it had a mass of tentacles. Its eyes gleamed a fierce red in the dim light.
The next few seconds were chaotic. They were all shooting tranq darts at the alien, and Jack was shouting, trying to reason with it, but none of it seemed to have any effect. Without warning, the alien raised its hand, holding a white orb of some sort, and placed it against Jack's head. Jack was instantly enveloped in a bright flash of lighting, groaning in pain. That must've been what had killed the Weevils - an alien energy of some sort. Explained the lack of an obvious cause of death.
Ianto didn't think about what he was doing. His hand grabbed the pistol as if with a will of its own, and pointed it over Jack's convulsing shoulder, straight at the alien's forehead. He pulled the trigger.
Both Jack and the alien collapsed to the ground, purple blood and who knew what alien brain matter splattering over them.
After several seconds of what would've been silence if not for the deafening echo of the point-blank gunshot echoing in Ianto's ears, Jack sat up, gasping. "Thanks, Ianto. Now, let's get out of here before anything else shows up."
Hauling the corpse through the corridors and up and out of the manhole was a tedious task. Luckily, they were able to do it in peace, with no more angry creatures attacking them. They loaded the dead Weevil and the dead unknown alien into the back of the SUV and drove back to the Hub.
Half an hour later, Ianto returned to his desk at the Hub's back entrance, showered and changed. He did his best to hang on to the thoughts of warm water and Jack's even warmer body against his, because he didn't want to think about what he'd done before that. He'd shot that alien in cold blood, without hesitation - but he'd done it for Jack. He couldn't stand watching Jack in pain. And the alien had obviously been dangerous. He'd done the right thing, even Jack had said so. Hold on to the pleasant thoughts. Jack's hand in his hair, wandering down along his spine...
Ianto was yanked away from his happy place when the door opened, letting in a tall, thin man dressed in brown, his brown hair sticking up in all directions. "Hello, sorry, I'm looking for Torchwood. This is the entrance, right?" he said.
Ianto sat up straight and peered at the man, carefully keeping his face blank. "I'm sorry, sir - Torchwood? What's that?"
The man frowned at him, his lips stopping in a pout before he went on to say, "Oh. I know you. You're Ianto Jones. Oh, no. No, no, no. This is bad."
Chapter 3
