The Spirits Within 21/21 + epilogue

[madbottoms]

The Spirits Within

Chapter: 21/21 + 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 21

 

The dream was back.

 

The same alien sun and large moon hung in the sky. Ianto looked around at the destroyed alien landscape. It was at a point in the dream where the two armies were already fighting, but before the wall of fire came and took everything.

 

But this dream was different.

 

Very different.

 

The live armies were gone. Only the empty, gray landscape remained.

 

Why had the dream changed? What did it mean?

 

Suddenly the alien particles he had carried for a long time burst out of his chest and swirled in the air in front of him.

 

Then, as if directed, they burrowed into the dead ground and disappeared.

 

Ianto could not believe what he was seeing.

 

Green grass and flowers started to grow around his feet, spreading outward over the hills. Everywhere he looked, life was coming back.

 

Then he woke up.

 

Jack was standing just a few feet away from him, firing his rifle as fast as he could, keeping the Phantoms at bay. For the moment he seemed to be winning. Ianto opened his shirt and looked at the holographic image of the alien particles trapped in his chest. The membrane was still there, but the alien particles had vanished. In their place was a complete spirit wave.

 

"I have it!" he shouted. And he knew exactly what had happened.

 

"Ianto?" Jack said, turning toward his. "Are you all right?" He turned back and fired at another nearby Phantom.

 

"Jack, can you come in here closer?" Ianto asked. "I need you." Then he called for the Doctor. He was going to need his help as well.

 

Jack backed toward his, never taking his eye off the closest Phantom.

 

"Doctor, are you there? The wave pattern is complete. It happened in the dream. It was the dream."

 

"That’s brilliant," he said, his voice clear.

 

Ianto rigged up a wire from his chest plate to the Weevil com system, downloading the information he had to the Doctor. "Data coming in. The spirit found me, Doctor."

 

Jack killed two more Phantoms before the Doctor's voice came back strong. "Oh, my word," he said, clearly looking at the data he had sent him from his chest plate. "I see it now. How logical."

 

Jack fired again, vaporising another Phantom, then turned. "Well, I don't understand. What’s going on?"

 

Ianto turned and started to work on the equipment just inside the Weevil door. "Give me an ovo-pack," he said. "I need to power up the shield."

 

"But we'll be defenseless," Jack said, looking at the last ovo-pack in his rifle. Ianto could tell it was the last one. His other rifle lay discarded on the ground a few feet away.

 

"Just do it," Ianto said.

 

Jack pulled the ovo-pack out of his rifle and handed it to him.

 

"Get in," Ianto said, moving as fast as he could to get the shield up and running.

 

Jack climbed in and sat, alternately watching him and the Phantoms that were coming closer and closer.

 

"I hope you know what you are doing.

 

 "I do," Ianto said, slapping the shield back into place, hoping it would come back quickly. "We have to project the completed wave from me out into the alien Vortex. "

 

"What?" Jack asked.

 

"The Doctor's theory was right," he said.

 

"Thank you," the Doctor said over the com line.

 

"I'm cured. I have the eighth spirit."

 

"Are you sure?" Jack asked as he got the last wire in place and hit the control for the shield to turn it on.

 

"I'm sure," he said.

 

"But how could you know that?"

 

"A dream told me."

 

He turned and looked at him, still clearly puzzled as he worked as fast as he could.

 

Around them the shield kicked in just as a Phantom slammed into the side of the Weevil. Sparks flew, but the golden, shimmering shield held.

 

"That was what I call close," Jack said. "I thought you were dead."

 

"I might have been," Ianto said, pulling Jack toward him and reaching up to pull his head down for a kiss. "But does this feel dead?"

 

He couldn't answer him, but he was pretty sure of his response.

 

After a moment Ianto pulled away. "Now we have work to do."

 

It took them ten more minutes, with some help from the Doctor, before they got the energy wave just the way they needed it, taken from Ianto and put out through the Weevil's shield to the alien Vortex.

 

"Ready?" Ianto asked.

 

"I've been ready for years," Jack said, checking over the control board in front of him.

 

Ianto hit the switch and watched as, outside the Weevil, the new wave slowly started to purify the Phantom Vortex, turning it from an angry red to a wonderful, peaceful blue.

 

The same blue Ianto was sure it had started out as, before all the fighting, before the destruction, before the long eons trapped in space.

 

Before the alien Vortex had become so angry.

 

Now it would only be a matter of time, and the alien Vortex would be at rest. A moment later Ianto realized they didn't have the time.

 

"Incoming!" the Doctor's warning filled the small Weevil.

 

"Oh, no," Ianto said.

 

Jack yanked him to the floor, covering him and protecting him with his body as around them the world shook.

 

And then came apart.

 

*~*

 

General Hart sat in his command chair, watching the Hub Cannon fire on the alien creature in the rift. It had taken him longer than he had wanted to override the safety controls to get this shot. But now he wasn't going to let up until the creature was gone from the face of the planet.

 

"Warning! System overload!"

 

"Would someone shut off that damn computer?" Hart shouted, not taking his attention from the screen and his target.

 

"Can't, sir," the major said.

 

"Warning! System overload."

 

"We need to stop firing, sir!" Major Swanson yelled over the computer voice.

 

"No!" Hart said. He studied his board. He had complete control of the firing and he was going to keep at it.

 

"Warning! System overload!"

 

"It must be done!" Hart shouted, keeping the beam firing into the creature. He wasn't going to let up until it was gone, no matter what damage it caused to this weapon. The damage could be fixed after the alien Phantoms were gone.

 

"Warning! Warning! Warning!"

 

"Contain that, Major Swanson," Hart said, "whatever the problem is."

 

The major said nothing.

 

One soldier from the back of the room shouted, "Major, we have ovo-packs starting to react."

 

"General, we must shut down!"

 

Suddenly the weapon shut down.

 

General Hart stared at the screen. The alien was still there.

 

He stabbed at the controls on the panel in front of him, trying to get the cannon to fire again.

 

"Warning! All personnel report to evacuation posts at once."

 

General Hart turned to stare at Major Swanson. "What is that blasted computer talking about?"

 

Swanson just pointed out the side port at the ovo-pack containment area of the station. As Hart watched, the entire section of the station exploded.

 

The station rocked and then went dark. Hart barely kept himself in his command chair. A moment later the emergency power came back up, followed by the screens and control boards. Maybe not all was lost.

 

Major Swanson righted herself and looked at the general. "You've killed us all, you know?"

 

"What do you mean by that, Major?"

 

The station again shook. This time the explosion was closer and harder.

 

Major Swanson did not answer.

 

Another explosion shut the lights off for good and rocked the command area like a hard earthquake.

 

This time Hart didn't manage to stay in his chair. He flew across the room in the zero-g, smashing into a control panel. A moment later, the last explosion ripped the entire station apart.

 

General Hart didn't even know what hit him.

 

Below the station, the angry red colours of the alien Vortex pulsed and surged and expanded out of the rift.

 

*~*

 

Ianto came to lying face up on the rock surface, one arm dangling over the fissure that lead down to the Earth's Vortex. His head hurt and his back hurt, and he was bleeding from both elbows and a dozen other cuts and scrapes.

 

But he was still alive.

 

He pushed himself to his feet and looked up. The alien Vortex was red and angry-looking above him. The wave they had started had been stopped by the firing of the cannon. At least for the moment, the smaller Phantoms were not around. But he had no doubt they would be soon.

 

Ianto turned to see if he could see Jack and the Weevil. Then he understood how he had gotten outside of it. The machine had been smashed and crumpled.

 

Panic washed through him. Jack couldn't be in there. No one could survive in that twisted metal.

 

"Jack!" He started to run toward the wreck when he saw him propped up against a rock ten metres away. Quickly he scrambled to him.

 

The closer he got, the more he could tell he was hurt badly. Blood was dripping out of the corner of his mouth, and his eyes were rolled up into his head. His breathing was shallow and raspy. He clearly had internal injuries.

 

"Jack!" he shouted as he knelt beside him. "Don't leave me, Jack!"

 

His head rolled forward and he opened his eyes slowly. A weak smile followed when he saw him. "I told the Doctor this was a one-way trip. Looks like I was right."

 

Ianto held him against him, trying to keep him conscious. He couldn't let him go. He couldn't die. He searched around him for any sign of the communications link he had been carrying. It was nowhere to be found. And even if he could find it, the Doctor couldn't get the ship down there through that Vortex.

 

"Well," Jack said, his head rolling a little. "This feels like a fine time to leave. I love you, you know."

 

"I know," Ianto said, holding him even tighter. "But you can't leave. Hang on, please. I need you!"

 

"Ianto," Jack said, closing his eyes. "Don't."

 

"No, listen to me," Ianto said, not letting him talk. "I've still got the alien wave inside of me. I need your help getting it into the alien Vortex."

 

Jack’s eyes opened again, and he looked at Ianto, blinking in an effort to clear away the fog.

 

"That's right," Ianto said. "I still have it. All I need to do is reach up and touch the alien. The wave inside me will be transferred."

 

Ianto looked at him. His eyes were there, his mind for the moment was there. He could see that. But the pain was clearly bad for the captain. He had to get him help. "Hold on, Jack. Help will come for you as soon as I'm done."

 

"No," Jack said, his voice firm. "I’m not going to make it, Ianto."

 

"You're going to make it." Ianto couldn't let him talk like that. He had to stay positive.

 

"We both know that isn't true," Jack said. He looked past him at the angry alien above them. Then he moved, trying to get into a position where he could get up. "But I have an idea on how we can solve this and you can get out of here. Help me stand."

 

"I don't think-"

 

"Help me." The command in his voice was back, and strong. "We need to make it to the edge."

 

Ianto looked over his shoulder at what he had seen, then started to understand what he was trying to do. "Jack, please."

 

"Listen to me," Jack said, leaning against him as his legs gained strength under him. "You saved my life once. Now I want you to save yourself. And this world."

 

Jack held him around the shoulders, his weight against him. Then he turned him and together they moved to the edge of the massive crack in the ground. Below them the wonderful blue of the Earth's Vortex was welcoming. Above was the angry, swirling red of the alien, expanding out and coming closer and closer every moment.

 

Jack pointed down to a ledge a few feet below where they were. "Jump down there and hold onto me."

 

"Jack, no!" Ianto said. He couldn't handle the thought of being without him.

 

"Let me do this, Ianto," Jack said. "You have to trust me."

 

Ianto looked into his eyes, and he saw complete love. He did trust him. He just couldn't lose him.

 

"Don't leave me, Jack."

 

Jack laughed, then coughed up more blood before going on. "You've been trying to tell me from the first day we met that death isn't the end. Don't back out on me now."

 

Ianto looked at him as he smiled.

 

"Now that I finally believe."

 

Jack motioned that Ianto should jump down onto the shelter of the lower rock ledge.

 

He did as he was told, landing on the ledge hard. Then he reached back up and touched his leg, holding onto him. Ianto knew what Jack was doing was right, yet he didn't want it to happen. There had to be another way.

 

One of the tentacles of the alien Vortex was swinging back and forth over his head.

 

Jack looked down at him as the angry red of the alien swept toward him. "I love you," he said.

 

The next moment the alien Vortex's tentacle smashed into him.

 

And then through him.

 

His blue energy merged with the energy inside of Ianto, pulling the wave out of him and up and into the alien Vortex.

 

For an instant, they were one.

 

Joined forever.

 

Then he was gone, his body slumped to the rock surface, dead.

 

"Jack!" he shouted, his scream echoing through the fissure.

 

It was sudden and clear, what was happening.

 

Jack had used his body as a conduit to transfer the completed wave inside of Ianto to the alien Vortex.

 

Now the light particles of the completed spirit wave swirled the alien Vortex into a wonderful whirlwind of blue colour. The colour twisted upward, converting more and more of the angry Vortex as it went. Higher and higher into the sky the beautiful blue energy flew.

 

Ianto could feel it radiating from the Vortex. Love, understanding, peace. The red of the anger was being transformed.

 

Ianto watched as the Vortex slowly became a vertical river of blues and greens and silvers, all swirling upward toward the heavens. The alien Vortex was leaving. It had finally attained the peace it had never had on its homeworld. It was now going home again. Ianto watched until there wasn't a particle of blue or green or silver left to be seen in the sky. Then he climbed up onto the ledge above and stood at the edge of the fissure, next to Jack's body.

 

Below him the blue of the Earth's Vortex was slowly settling back into the ground. He knew Jack was there now. He had died to save the planet. Ianto would make sure he was never forgotten.

 

Comments

[black59.livejournal.com]

together the way!
they are found, have included ... but snif!
Well, I think that since Jack touched the vortex that is love ... it may be that .... I will read the epilogue.