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The Spirits Within 20/21+ epilogue
The Spirits Within
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 20
Jack squeezed his shoulder. "I don't think he believed a word you said."
Ianto wanted to smash something, especially the smirk off the general's face, but already every bone in his body ached from the pounding they had been taking. Jack was right; the general was going to keep firing until he destroyed everything, including this planet.
Jack pulled him down on the floor. "Brace yourself, we're in for a rough ride."
Ianto could see the massive alien creature spreading and expanding as Phantom after Phantom left it. It would soon cover them. He braced himself against a smooth panel, his feet against a second panel.
Jack was beside him, also braced, his strong hand holding his.
"Incoming," the Doctor's voice said. The sensors on Myfanwy gave them a few seconds warning, but nothing more. The Doctor had managed to get the ship out of the line of fire and on the ground near enough to the rift to help.
The world flashed white and the Weevil bounced hard. But Ianto was so well braced this time he didn't end up with any more bruises.
Ianto and Jack both stood quickly the moment the light passed, checking to make sure they were still in one piece. So far they were.
"Shield is holding," Jack said.
He could tell from the wonderful flowing gold around them.
"So any ideas?" he asked, turning to face the man he loved.
"Hang on and hope the general runs out of ammunition for that big cannon."
"And then what?"
He laughed. "If we're still alive at that point, we'll figure it out."
He looked out at the massive alien Vortex, now clearly bigger than just a few minutes before. If something didn't happen quickly, they were going to find themselves sitting inside that thing.
"Incoming!" the Doctor warned.
Jack and Ianto dropped to the floor and got braced just in time to ride out still another shot from the cannon in the sky. After the rocking had ended, Jack glanced at his watch. "The general has picked up the pace. Your speech helped a lot."
If they weren't in such trouble, he would have laughed.
Ianto worked quickly to check the Weevil's systems. He sat there, not moving. He had expected he was going to die trying to get the eighth spirit, but now that spirit had been destroyed and taken back into the Vortex. And he was still going to die.
That just didn't feel right. Or fair.
He and Jack braced themselves as the Doctor’s warning came again.
This time the shaking was far, far worse, and the Weevil tipped and then rolled, end-over-end, more times than Ianto wanted to think about.
When it finally came to rest, the Weevil was wedged between two steep rock faces, tipped slightly to the left.
"You all right?" he asked Jack as they both looked around and did quick checks of the Weevil's systems.
Above them, the alien Vortex was a red, pulsating wall of energy. The last shot had opened massive cracks in the Earth, and the Weevil had fallen down into one of them, coming to rest twenty feet below the level of the alien Vortex.
"We're in trouble now," Ianto said, looking up at the red mass above them.
"More than you think," Jack said. "One more shot and I'm betting our shields will fail."
Ianto had nothing to say about that.
The next moment the Doctor's voice filled the Weevil.
"Incoming!"
*~*
General Hart watched the screen. He didn't much like what he was seeing. Not at all. The creature was now almost the size of the entire impact rift, and getting bigger with every shot from the Hub Cannon.
But maybe that meant it was getting weaker? That had to be what was going on. They were pounding it, smashing it, and when something got smashed, it spread out.
Major Swanson cleared his throat. "General, the system is overheating."
"I don't care," he said, staring at the monster below. "We're going to keep hitting it and hitting it, again and again, until it's dead."
"But, sir," the major protested, "we're not even sure if the cannon is having any effect on the creature."
Hart waved his arm at the screen. "And what do you call that? Can't you tell we're smashing it to a pulp? This is our moment of victory. I order you to continue firing."
"Sir," the major said, "I'm sorry, but the automatic lock-out systems won't allow us to fire again. Not when it's this hot."
General Hart laughed. "I built this baby, I know what it can take. And I know when it can be fired."
He leaned forward and started keying in certain command codes on his board. Manual override codes.
"Stand ready," he said as he worked. "We're going back on the attack in just a few minutes."
*~*
The last shot from the Hub Cannon had knocked the Weevil even deeper into the fissure. And it had knocked out the Weevil's screens.
Jack pushed himself to his feet, then helped Ianto to his. He looked tired and beat up. A cut had opened on his arm and was bleeding pretty heavily.
"It’s alright," Ianto said. "But I don't think we are." He pointed to the window.
Jack turned and stared. All he could see above them was the red and pink pulsation of the monster Phantom. And from the skin of that creature, other smaller Phantoms were starting to appear.
"We're sitting ducks in here," he said, shoving the hatch of the Weevil open and locking it in that position.
There was a rock ledge that the Weevil had landed on, and a small outcropping ten meters away that might give them shelter, if they could make it there in time.
Jack picked up two high-powered rifles and enough charges to keep him firing for some time. Ianto retrieved his communications equipment and attached it to his belt, then picked up a smaller rifle.
"Let's go," Jack said as he stepped out onto the rock ledge and helped Ianto out.
Above them the pulsing, gigantic Phantom Vortex covered them like the roof of a stadium. Jack could have never imagined anything so large and yet living.
"This is not a good place to be," he said, staring at it as a small Phantom peeled off the side of the monster.
Ianto pulled his sleeve gently and then pointed down into the massive crack in the Earth that plunged to one side of them. Jack could see a shimmering blue plasma. It was as if he were looking down into a deep, clear mountain lake.
He looked at Ianto. He was smiling, staring at it like he had just seen a newborn child.
"Wait," Jack said, looking back at the blue below them. "Don't tell me that's what I think it is."
"Yes," Ianto said, his voice a whisper, as if he were in a very holy place. "That's the Vortex."
Jack looked up at the red, alien Vortex over them, then down at the blue one below them. "This is definitely not a good place to be."
Suddenly Ianto bent over, moaning as if in extreme pain.
"Hey, are you all right?"
Jack held him, keeping an eye out around them for moving Phantoms. General Hart hadn't fired again, which was both good news and bad. Without his cannon wiping out all the smaller Phantoms with every shot, the place was starting to get crowded again.
"I have to talk to the Doctor," Ianto said, taking a deep breath and standing.
Jack took his communications link off his belt and handed it to him, then went back to guarding them.
"Doctor," Ianto said. "Do you read me?"
"Go ahead," he said. "I'm still here."
"You won't believe this," Ianto said, "but right now we're standing on a ledge under the alien Vortex, looking down at the Earth's Vortex."
"What?"
Jack smiled. The Doctor was having as much trouble believing what they were seeing as they were. That was good to know.
"The Vortex," Ianto said. "It's right below us. I think that explains why the eighth spirit appeared here."
"Yes!" Jack heard the older scientist shout. "You're right! That's it! Hold on."
"Where does he expect we're going?" Jack asked.
Ianto didn't even smile.
After a moment the Doctor's voice came back over the communications link. "I ran some calculations. From what I can tell, a single Phantom particle must have come into contact with a new spirit born from our own Vortex. If so, that would have given it the different energy signature that set it apart from the other Phantoms."
"Well," Jack said, watching as two Phantoms were born right overhead and moved off through the rock walls, "we're having a lot of births right now."
"You two could not have hoped for a better location to find a new, compatible spirit."
Jack again laughed. "He thinks this is great? He should be here."
"Whatever you do," the Doctor warned, "don't move. Stay right where you are while I see what I can track."
Jack watched a Phantom swooping in low from the right of the fissure. "Staying right where we are may not be as easy as it sounds."
Jack waited until he was sure the Phantom was going to move right through them, then he fired. The energy beam struck it and vaporised it.
"Don't shoot any of them!" the Doctor shouted over the comm link.
Ianto shrugged, his face pale and sweat pouring off his forehead.
The Doctor kept up his lecture. "You could very well destroy our last hope."
"Then what do you suggest I do?" Jack asked, keeping an eye on three other Phantoms headed their way. "Ask them to play nice?"
"Combat strategy is your area of expertise, Captain, not mine. Just don't shoot any of them unless you absolutely have to."
Suddenly Ianto turned, a sensor in his hand. He held it out, trying to scan around them. "Doctor, I have a reading here in the fissure. Do you see it?"
"Yes," he said. "It's compatible. It must be very near you."
Ianto moved back toward the hatch of the Weevil, following the reading on his sensor.
Jack kept a sharp eye on the half dozen Phantoms headed their way. "Well, Doc," he shouted, hoping the Doctor would hear him over Ianto's com link. "Which one is it?"
Ianto shook his head, seeming to be almost in a trance.
Jack watched as the Phantoms moved closer. He didn't have much time if he was going to stop them all.
"It's getting crowded down here."
He glanced around. Ianto had slumped in the hatchway of the Weevil. He looked dead.
"Ianto!" he shouted, the panic raising in his stomach.
He didn't move.
"Ianto!"
No response.
He couldn't be dead. Maybe he had just passed out again, as he had done in the wasteland.
He turned back to face the oncoming Phantoms.
He had no choice any more. It was either them or him, and with Ianto laying there like that, maybe already dead, he just didn't have much choice. Using his shots carefully, he picked off the closest Phantoms one by one. It didn't seem to do any good. They just kept coming.
no subject
whew
But Ianto .... argh