The Spirits Within 16/21 + epilogue

[madbottoms]

The Spirits Within

Chapter: 16/21 + epilogue

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

Rating: PG

Warnings: Character death

Spoilers: Only if you’ve never seen Torchwood of Final Fantasy

Notes: See chapter 1 for notes and disclaimer.

 

Chapter 16

 

Ianto felt his entire body go numb as he and the Doctor watched from the protected and barrier-shielded cargo hold as Owen and Toshiko were killed. The silence between them was so loud it almost hurt. He could not believe he had seen what had just happened out there. It wasn't possible. Not after all the fights and battles Toshiko and Owen had gone through.

 

But it had happened. He knew it. There, on the screen, were Toshiko and Owen, lying beside each other on the concrete, dead. The Myfanwy was still moving on the air-tray, rotating around until it was in position at the end of the runway. He knew Jack was in the control tower, but he didn't know if he was alive or dead.

 

Suddenly the control-tower window burst outward and Jack jumped to a patio area ten feet over the runway. Then he started firing and shouting at something Ianto couldn't see beside Myfanwy. More than likely it was the Phantom that had killed Owen and Toshiko.

 

It took him a moment to understand what he was doing. He was trying to save him and the Doctor by drawing the attention of the Phantom. But they were protected. They had up an ovo-energy shield. Didn't he know that? He was sure he did.

 

Something else was happening. He glanced around at the control panel on the wall of the cargo bay. It showed that the autopilot launch was set and counting down. The Myfanwy was going to launch as soon as it got into position, leaving Jack and Rhys behind.

 

He couldn't allow that to happen. He dropped the barrier shield that was up around him and the Doctor in the cargo area, then headed at a run for the passageway up to the cockpit. He had to get that autopilot off.

 

"Where are you going?" the Doctor asked as Ianto stopped in the hallway to power up the barrier around him on his way out.

 

"Jack and Owen set the ship on autopilot," he said. "We're in countdown to liftoff."

 

"Oh," he said. He glanced at the view screen showing Jack firing and trying to draw the large Phantom's attention, then back at Ianto.

 

Ianto could tell he understood what he was doing. "Stay inside the protected shield area," he said, "no matter what happens. One of us has to get the information we have out of here."

 

The Doctor nodded but said nothing as Ianto turned and headed up to the cockpit.

 

In the open lab, where he had spent so much time searching for spirits from orbit, a phantom floated, moving from left to right as the ship rotated on the air-tray. It was a small one and visible, as they all seemed to be after all the energy explosions in the city.

 

He watched it carefully as he climbed up the ladder into the cockpit, making sure it suddenly didn't move after him. If one came through up there, he wouldn't stand a chance—there just wasn't enough room to get out of the way. And the cockpit wasn't shielded.

 

As he settled into the pilot's chair, he understood what Jack was firing at. He could see through the windows a Meta, so large that part of it extended above the roof of the hangar. It was about twenty metres to the right of the Myfanwy, just hovering.

However, just the whipping action of one of its massive tentacles could reach him at any moment.

 

He watched as Jack kept shouting words he couldn't hear at the Phantom and firing. Then suddenly from the left another stream of fire joined Jack's.

 

He leaned forward to see that Rhys was adding the jeep's old cannon power into the battle from his pinned position. The Myfanwy had rotated right back to a position not more than a hundred metres from him.

 

From the looks of it, the heavy weapon wasn't making a difference on the Meta either. It wasn't moving away from the attack as Jack and Rhys kept pouring shot after shot into it.

 

He keyed in the communications link with Jack and then studied the ship's control panel. The Myfanwy was within seconds of autopilot launch. If he couldn't stop the launch, they would be in orbit before he could do anything else.

 

His fingers flew over the control board, working to lock out the signal from the control tower and take over launch control himself. He wasn't going to leave Jack and Rhys, not if he had anything to say about it.

 

Below he heard the rumble of Myfanwy's engines kicking in.

 

"Stop, baby stop," he whispered, speeding up his efforts to override the tower control Jack and Owen had set.

 

"What are you doing?" Jack asked in his ear.

 

He started. He had forgotten he had turned on the communication link. He didn't bother to answer him. A moment later Myfanwy clicked into launch position and the air-tray stopped.

 

"Autopilot launch," the computer said.

 

"Not if I can help it," Ianto said.

 

"Ianto!" Jack shouted in his ear. "Get back to the cargo bay. Now!"

 

Finally, just as the ship lifted off the ground, he managed to disengage the autopilot, taking over control and holding the ship level and hovering above the runway.

 

The Meta Phantom towered over him and the ship, blocking the runway. There was nowhere he could go. Jack and Rhys were going to have to win the fight out there, or none of them was escaping.

 

Now he understood what Jack had been trying to do, and why he wanted him back in the cargo bay. With the cargo hold shielded, it didn't matter if the ship flew through a Meta on the way out. The Doctor would survive. He would have too, if he had remained down there with him.

 

But if the autopilot had launched the ship with him in the cockpit, he would be very, very dead.

 

He glanced down at the ship's control board again. Now he really understood why Jack was such a good soldier. He knew what needed to be done and focused on that. And what was really important now was getting the Doctor out of there and to safety, so that the information he had could be used to save everyone.

 

Jack knew that, and sitting there now, maybe moments from death, he understood it. The Meta in front of him kept absorbing the fire from Rhys and Jack without moving.

 

He quickly programmed in the autopilot and set it to trigger the moment he took his hand from the panel. As long as he was alive, he would control the ship. But if something happened to him, the ship would take the Doctor to safety.

 

Outside the window Jack turned and killed a small Phantom coming up on him from the side, then went back to trying to move the Meta blocking the ship.

 

He could tell it just wasn't working.

 

*~*

 

Jack almost panicked when he saw Ianto settle into the pilot's chair of the Myfanwy. He could not believe that he had left the safety of the cargo hold and was in the cockpit. Yet there he was. No doubt he had the Doctor still protected in the cargo bay, but he would die if the ship went through the Meta.

 

He just hoped he realized he had the autopilot on and knew how to disengage it.

 

"Stop, baby stop," he whispered, his voice clear in his ear. So he was trying to disengage the autopilot.

 

"What are you doing?" Jack asked.

 

He didn't answer him, even though he knew he could hear him.

 

The air-tray clicked into position and the Myfanwy’s engines fired, lifting the ship from the ground in the normal autopilot launch sequence.

 

"Ianto!" Jack shouted in his ear. "Get back to the cargo bay. Now!"

 

Again he didn't answer.

 

He fired into the Meta even harder and faster, trying to move it before it killed Ianto along with Toshiko and Owen. If he didn't get that autopilot off, he was going to be dead in seconds. Then, the ship stopped and hovered. Clearly Ianto had managed to free the ship. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Now it was up to him and Rhys to clear the path for him and the Doctor to make it out of this death trap. Even from over a hundred meters away, Jack could see the pain on Rhys' face as he fired the big cannon. Clearly the effort was costing him.

 

Suddenly Jack remembered the case of ovo-energy packs that Toshiko had found to power the barrier inside the cargo hold. It was tucked against one ship on the other side of the Meta. Maybe blowing them up would be enough of a distraction. But Jack doubted his gun would be powerful enough to set off the explosion they needed.

 

He signalled to Rhys that he should follow his shot.

 

Rhys nodded.

 

Then Jack took aim on the crate and fired. He had been right. His rifle wasn't powerful enough to set off the reaction among the remaining ovo-packs. But Rhys saw what he was doing and fired on the box, hitting it with the first shot.

 

The explosion rocked the Myfanwy in midair and sent Jack ducking for cover from flying debris.

 

The Meta turned and moved toward the energy surge, just as Jack hoped it would, clearing the way for the Myfanwy to take off.

 

But the explosion did other things as well. Suddenly more and more smaller Phantoms were coming in through the walls and down through the ceiling, also attracted by the new energy. It was like an invasion.

 

Jack opened fire on everything that came close to him, Rhys, or the ship.

 

Jack fired on a Phantom, hitting it but not stopping it.

 

Rhys knew what Jack was firing at, but really couldn't turn to help. He never saw his executioner coming.

 

The Phantom passed over Rhys and moved toward the source of energy from the burning ovo-packs.

 

Rhys' spirit shot up into the air and then vanished.

 

Jack fired and fired on the Phantom and killed it, before it had even finishing passing over Rhys. But it was far, far too late.

 

In his ear Jack heard Ianto's voice. "Jack, do you read me?"

 

"You and the Doctor get out of here," Jack said, staring at Rhys' body. "Now!"

 

"No!" Ianto said, his voice firm. "We're not leaving you."

 

"Everyone else is dead," Jack said, his voice almost horse. He didn't really want to hear those words out loud. Not now, not ever.

 

"I'm not leaving without you," Ianto said.

 

"I'm sorry," Jack said, "but you don't have a choice. You have to get yourself and the Doctor out of here. Good-bye, Ianto."

 

He kept firing on any Phantom that came close to him or got in front of Ianto's ship.

 

"Sorry, Captain," Ianto said. "You're with me whether you like it or not."

 

The Myfanwy turned and moved toward him, hovering over him. Suddenly the hatch opened over his head and the lift started to lower. He glanced around, firing on the smaller Phantoms that were coming in at him.

 

Suddenly, out of the floor of the deck area he was on, came three Phantoms. Spinning as he held the trigger down on his rifle, he killed all three of them before any of their tentacles could even brush against his leg.

 

The lift clanked to a stop beside him as he fired on two other Phantoms coming at him from the right.

 

"Jack!" Ianto shouted into his ear. "Get on! Now!"

 

Jack glanced over at the Meta, who had turned and was slowly coming back toward them. He and Ianto had very little time left to live if they stayed there.

 

He jumped onto the lift, firing at a smaller Phantom as he did.

 

"I'm on!" he shouted. "Go!"

 

Ianto moved the Myfanwy slowly forward as the lift pulled him upward. A flying Phantom came down out of the high ceiling, swooped in low, and came at him. He blew it out of the air.

 

Then the lift had him too close to the ship to safely fire. It clicked into place and he turned.

 

The Doctor was smiling at him.

 

"Glad to see you again, Captain," he said. His eyes were sad. It was clear that he had seen the deaths of the others on the view screen in the cargo bay.

 

"Hang on!" Ianto's voice shouted through the ship's com system and in Jack's ear.

 

Jack moved over and stood against the back bulkhead, his rifle useless in his hand.

 

An instant later Ianto fired both main thrusters, shoving Jack back against the bulkhead hard, banging his head against the metal.

 

"You all right?" the Doctor asked, the thrust twisting his words.

 

Jack said nothing. After today it would be a long, long time before he was all right.

 

On the view screen the ship managed to go past dozens of Phantoms and slip under the tentacles of another Meta, then flash out of the end of the massive hangar.

 

A moment later Ianto tipped its nose toward space and all the engines kicked in.

 

Jack wasn't able to pull himself away from the bulkhead for the next two minutes of full thrust. It gave him time to think and remember Rhys, Toshiko, and Owen. He could not believe they were gone. Not after all they had been through together.

 

Three of his closest friends, and three of the best soldiers he had ever known were dead, left to rot on a hangar floor. They had given their lives to save Ianto, the Doctor, and his life. He was going to make sure that sacrifice was worth it.

 

They would not be forgotten.

 

A moment later Ianto come floating back toward them.

 

"Good work," the Doctor said, smiling at him.

 

He turned to face him and the expression of deep sadness on his face.

 

"Thanks," Jack said.

 

Ianto nodded. "You would have done the same thing for me." He floated over to him and put his hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Jack. I really am. They were great soldiers."

 

"And great people as well," the Doctor added, moving up toward the cockpit, leaving the two of them alone.

 

He nodded and put his head on Ianto’s shoulder, closing his eyes and letting the soft feel of him against him take some of the pain. "I wish I could believe," he said after a moment, "that they were in a better place."

 

"Maybe the Doctor and I can prove it to you some day," Ianto said, his voice soft and comforting.

 

"I hope so," Jack said.

 

For the longest time he allowed himself to just float there in his arms, remembering the three who had given their lives to save them.

 

Then slowly he looked up at Ianto. The understanding and pain were clear in his eyes. Gently, he kissed him.

 

And for just a while, they could forget the horrors they’d seen and find comfort in each other, in their shared sorrow, before they were plunged back into reality.