The Spirits With 7/21 + epilogue

[madbottoms]

The Spirits Within
Chapter: 7/21 + epilogue

Prompt: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Characters: Jack, Ianto Owen, Tosh, Rhys, John Hart, the Doctor

Rating: PG

Notes: See chapter 1 for notes and disclaimer.

Chapter 7

 

In the last day, Jack hadn't heard anything from Ianto, but he hadn't expected to. He’d told him he was going to be working day and night until the other two spirits were found. Even though he wanted to help him, and be with him, Jack knew that the best thing he could do now was let Ianto work and stay out of his way, just as he’d done during the time in the gondola.

 

Jack knew Major Smith pretty well, since they had both come up through the ranks at about the same time. He didn't much care for Smith, since he was a ‘yes-man' to General Hart. Usually being summoned to the major's office was nothing more than a social visit to try to gain support for some cause the general was pushing, but Jack could tell from the major's posture as he stood behind his desk this was not one of those times.

 

It took Jack a moment to realise that he and Major Smith were not the only ones in the room. General Hart was standing near the window, looking over the city, his back to the door. Clearly something was happening, and Jack guessed that he and Deep Eyes were to be a part of it.

 

He saluted and Major Smith returned his salute, but didn't offer him a seat. There was no doubt this was very official and very important.

 

"Captain Harkness," the major said, "you and Deep Eyes extracted a Dr. Ianto Jones from old London several days ago, did you not?"

 

"Yes, sir," Jack said, stunned at the mention of Ianto's name. But he should have know this would be about him. After what he had done in the council chamber and to General Hart, how could it not be about him?

 

"And he saved your life from a Phantom infestation, did he not?"

 

"Yes, sir, he did."

 

General Hart did not move from his position at the window. It was almost as if he wasn't listening, but Jack knew better than that. The general missed very little.

 

"What were your impressions of Dr. Jones that day?" the major asked.

 

Jack had no idea just how much they knew about his relationship with Ianto, so he answered the question as it was posed. "He seemed very capable and determined, sir. He got what he went in for and we helped him get out."

 

Major Smith nodded, then looked down at his desk for a moment before looking Jack in the eyes. "You and Deep Eyes are being temporarily reassigned. You will guard Dr. Jones when he re-enters the wasteland."

 

Jack was even more shocked now. Ianto, in the last day, must have found the location of the seventh spirit, but what could be alive in the wasteland?

 

"Understood, sir," Jack said, keeping his thoughts and emotions hidden.

 

"No," General Hart said from his place near the window, "you don't understand yet, Captain."

 

General Hart turned and looked at Jack. The general's gaze felt like lasers cutting through him. Jack returned the stare, waiting for the general to explain.

 

"You are to report any aberrant behaviour in Dr. Jones to Major Smith immediately."

 

"'Aberrant behaviour,' sir?" Jack asked, wanting to make sure he was very clear on what the general meant.

 

General Hart looked back out at the city. "The man carries an alien infestation, Captain."

 

Jack said nothing. The general knew he had been at the council meeting when Ianto did his show-and-tell bit to buy time for his and the Doctor's project.

 

"We don't know what it may be doing to him," General Hart said, turning to again look at Jack.

 

Jack said nothing, so the general went on. "The alien presence could be affecting his judgement. For all we know, they may be manipulating the doctor for their own purposes."

 

"Is the general suggesting that Dr. Jones is a spy?" Jack asked. He didn't like at all what Hart was saying about Ianto. There was no way the man he had spent the night with in the gondola was any type of spy.

 

General Hart laughed. "The general is wondering why he's explaining himself to a captain."

 

Jack said nothing, let nothing show on his face. General Hart stared at him, his gaze piercing.

 

"He's had prolonged exposure to Phantom tissue," Major Smith said, moving to break the tension. "If this begins to manifest itself in any way, Dr. Jones is to be placed under arrest and transported for observation. Do I make myself very clear, Captain?"

 

Hart laughed then said. "It is, in fact, for his own good. You should know that, Captain."

 

"Of course, sir," Jack said. But he didn't believe a word of it, and he had no doubt that the general thought he did.

 

Major Smith saluted him and Jack returned the salute, then turned and headed for the door. He had no doubt at all that, after that exchange, some of the general's hand-picked men would be going along wherever Ianto and Deep Eyes went.

 

He pulled the door closed behind him, staring down the hallway. There was also no doubt that he and Deep Eyes were just pawns in a plan to somehow get Ianto and the Doctor out of General Hart's way.

 

If Jack had anything to say about it, that wouldn't happen.

 

*~*

 

They came on like a wind from the centre of hell.

 

Ianto stood his ground as the earth trembled around him, more real in his dream than it should be.

 

Then another rumbling was added to the first, just as it had been other nights, and lately every time he tried to even nap. The very air seemed as if it might shake into nothingness. He turned to see a second alien army hurling itself towards the first army. He stood in the middle, in the way of the two hordes of alien creatures carrying strange weapons, their armour shining in the hot sun.

 

They attacked as soon as their weapons were in range, destroying the land and each other.

 

The screaming and shouting and fighting sounds increased until it hurt his ears. He held his head, trying to block the sound, but the noise only increased as the two armies swarmed closer and closer.

 

Then, just at the moment Ianto usually woke up, the two armies collided in battle.

 

The carnage around him was beyond belief. They tore at each other, smashed bodies, ripped limbs and armour falling away like paper. Balls of fire mixed with lasers as the two armies fought. He stood in the middle of it all, not touched, not believing what he was witnessing. Death seemed to flow everywhere, pounding the world he stood on. Then, as if someone had stopped them all with a single command, the fighting ceased, and every remaining soldier in the two armies turned and looked toward him.

 

The silence was clear and complete, filling every ounce of his being.

 

Why were they looking at him?

 

What did they want with him?

 

Why was he even there?

 

Then, behind him, a roaring sound slowly grew until it punched through the silence like a hammer pounding on the back of his head. He knew they weren't looking at him, but beyond him.

 

Something else was coming. Something far, far worse.

 

He woke up before he could turn and see. He hated not knowing, hated the dreams for making him wait, hated even the thought of sleeping.

 

He tried to calm his racing heart and listen. Around him the transport carrying him and Deep Eyes was silent as everyone either drifted in their own thoughts or slept. In the cockpit, Owen was flying.

 

Outside the window beside him he could see an area of the central part of what had been the United States. The ground was dead and brown. Life in this area had vanished long ago.

 

He glanced at the time, then took a deep, shuddering breath and let it out slowly, making sure no one else on the transport noticed him. He had been asleep for less than ten minutes. There was no way he was going to try to go back to sleep again, even though he should rest. Not after watching those alien armies slaughter each other like that.

 

Dream or no dream, it had felt real. He sighed. He was now convinced that these dreams were some form of communication from the Phantoms. He shifted in his seat and looked around. He couldn't believe he had even thought that. If General Hart knew what he was thinking, he'd be locked up so fast and so deep, no one would ever find him.

 

He let one hand rub against the vest he wore. He knew that the Phantoms inside him were beginning to win. He just hoped he had enough energy and time to get the last two spirits before they did.

 

He leaned back in his seat and stared out the window. The Doctor was right. For the moment, until things changed completely, his dreams might not be his own, but his thoughts were still his. And right now, he would keep those thoughts to himself.

 

For Ianto, the next twenty minutes went slowly as he sat watching the landscape flash past under the transport. Everything below them was now looking more and more like the images in his dreams. Ianto knew it wasn't the same, but the fact that humans fighting Phantoms had turned parts of Earth into a wasteland, just as the alien armies of his dreams had turned another place into the same thing, bothered him a lot.

 

Below him the dead surface was pockmarked with bomb rifts. Twisted hunks of metal were all that was left of vehicles. Tree trunks had been smashed off at ground level in the long-ago battle for this area. Clearly the humans had lost. And the carnage seemed to go on forever.

 

Ianto had been stunned when the reconnaissance from orbit found the seventh spirit in this old battleground. So had the Doctor. There hadn't been a sign of life in this area for twenty years. Nothing could live out here with the Phantoms, yet there was the signal tracking the energy of the seventh spirit, right in the middle of this desolation.

 

Comments

[black59.livejournal.com]

I suspected what Hart was going to tell !
Fortunately, he does not seem to know the links that are between Jack and Ianto.

The ghosts win on Ianto??? Arghhh