madbottoms | The Spirits Within 9/21 + epilogue (Reply)

The Spirits Within
Chapter: 9/21 + 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 9

"They're right on us!" Toshiko shouted, never slowing her fire.

Ianto could see the transport thousands of miles off as it swept toward them. Part of him knew that wasn't the case, but it seemed that way.

Oh well, it didn't matter.

He was hot.

The light was so bright.

Jack's hand hurt under his arm.

Why did they have to make so much noise?

He had to rest.

What was wrong with stopping?

Sitting down was good.

He had to stop.

The ground was his friend. The others could just go on without him. He didn't care.

He wanted to tell Jack to take the ovo-pack to the Doctor, but then it didn't feel important enough to even bother.

He twisted sideways and felt Jack release him. Now he was free to stop and rest.

He had to rest.

Maybe even a little nap.

He felt the distant pain of his knees hitting the dirt, then his chest and head.

He didn't care about that, either. It almost seemed funny.

The last thought he had was to wonder why resting hurt so much.

Jack couldn’t believe it when Ianto twisted away from him and fell face-first into the dirt, With a quick shot he took out the large flying Phantom coming over a wrecked tank, then bent down and flipped him over. "Ianto, can you here me?"

Nothing. Not even a flutter from his eyelids.

"Captain!" Rhys shouted, "we’ve got to keep moving!"

Jack used both arms to scoop Ianto up. He seemed heavier than he should be, and the metal wrapped around his chest and back was hard and hot to the touch. Ianto was completely unconscious and his breathing was very shallow. Jack needed help and he needed it fast.

"Fire in the hole!" Toshiko shouted, who fired past Jack, taking out a Phantom that was coming up behind him.

Jack nodded his thanks to Toshiko. Owen had the transport hovering just in front of them, the ramp down and waiting. Jack shouted, "Make a run for it! Keep it tight, people!"

As a unit, the Deep Eyes took off, staying in diamond formation with him taking the point, carrying Ianto. General Hart's two remaining men brought up the rear, running and firing behind them as best they could.

The distance to the transport wasn't far, not more than fifty metres, but the ground was rough and covered with battle debris and dead bodies. The run seemed to take forever, and with every jolt he worried about Ianto, and what it was doing to him. But at the moment they just didn't have any other choice. He might live this way. Slowing down would no doubt be deadly to all of them.

Ahead, Jack could see there were Phantoms coming in at the transport from all sides. They had to clear the area around the transport, at least back far enough to give them time to get it in the air. Considering how many of the flying Phantoms were swarming at them, including some huge Metas, that wasn't going to be an easy task.

He shifted Ianto to his shoulder, freeing his right arm and gun, just in time to take out a Phantom coming up from the ground ten feet ahead of them.

"Owen!" Jack shouted as they got within fifty paces of the transport. "Get ready to lift!"

"Yes sir!" Owen said.

"The rest of you clear them back from the transport. Toshiko in front, Rhys take the rear. Thirty seconds is all we have, people."

It worked like it should. He stopped with Ianto on his shoulder near the bottom of the ramp and cut down anything he could see coming on the other side of the transport, firing under the ship. Toshiko went right, Rhys left, laying down fire constantly, taking out any Phantom that might be close enough to reach the transport before they could get into the air.

Jack headed up the steps and inside with Ianto. He laid him out on the deck, then jumped to the tactical chair. A few seconds later General Hart's men got in, followed by Toshiko and Rhys, both firing as they came up the ramp.

"Meta coming in fast!" Toshiko said as the hatch slammed closed.

A Meta could expand out so far that they seemed to cover entire city blocks, and they liked to come in from above, using their vast size to trap their targets under them.

"Get us out of here, Owen!" Jack shouted.

"I'd love to sir," Owen shouted as the transport lifted off the ground, clearing them from anything coming up under them, "but I got a Meta blocking-"

"Just do it!" Jack ordered as the tactical hologram came into focus, showing the Meta over them. There was an opening, but a small one. "Head right and keep it low and fast!"

The transport spun and shot off, skimming over the ridge right between two smaller Phantoms and out from under the Meta. Jack studied the holo-image and the surrounding landscape. There were Metas everywhere, more than he could have ever imagined in one place. And they were so big there was no chance the transport could get over them safely. They were going to have to find a way through them. To the right a rock cliff-face was cut by a steep-walled canyon. It looked to be the least occupied by Metas, and maybe the ship could slip through there.

"Owen, see the canyon to the right?" Jack asked.

"On it, Captain," Owen said, banking the transport first to the right to go around a massive Meta coming up at them like a thundercloud boiling with energy, then back toward the opening in the rocks.

Jack slipped out of the chair and Toshiko sat down.

Then he knelt beside Ianto and pulled his shirt aside to look at the holo-image on his chest. The alien infestation seemed to be swarming and squirming on the screen, much harder and faster than it had done in front of the council. Clearly he was losing his fight with the Phantom particles inside him, or something had happened to his shielding in the heat.

"We have to get him to a hospital," he said to Toshiko at tactical. "Give Owen directions on how to get us out of this mess. And make it fast."

"You have your orders, sir," one of General Hart's men said.

Jack shook his head, not really believing what he had heard. He stood to face two drawn pistols.

The general's two men had put aside their rifles and now held standard bullet-firing pistols. They were both sitting, facing Jack, Rhys, Ianto, and Toshiko. Neither one had taken off their helmets, so Jack could not see their faces or their eyes.

Rhys was near the cockpit. "Are you two nuts?"

"What the hell is going on here?" Jack demanded, although he knew very well what it was. General Hart had sent these men to watch him. He had been ordered to arrest Ianto the moment he showed any signs of strangeness. Clearly, having that many Phantoms come after them and his passing out would qualify, under the general's orders. But at the moment that didn't much matter to him. He wasn't going to let Ianto die in some jail cell to satisfy a power-hungry General Hart.

"Dr Jones is to be taken into custody now, sir!" one soldier said.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your fun and games," Owen said from the cockpit, "but I'm facing a wall of Metas here. I could use a little help!"

Toshiko turned her attention back to the tactical holo. "Right! Up the next side canyon."

Outside of the transport the canyon walls flashed past, sometimes just inches from the transport wings.

"Lower your weapons!" Jack said, keeping his voice as low and forceful as he could. "That's an order."

One of General Hart's men shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir. We have no choice but to relieve you of your command. Please put aside your weapons."

"This man needs medical attention," Jack said, pointing at Ianto. "You can arrest him after he is treated."

"Those are not our orders," one of the general's men said. "We are to arrest him. And you. What happens after that is not our business."

"You are some cold-blooded mother," Rhys said.

"I won't let you do this, soldier," Jack said, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. "You're going to have to shoot me."

"Stand down, Captain," the man said.

Rhys moved to flank Jack. Even though Toshiko remained at the tactical, helping Owen weave through the Metas, her posture made it clear she was with Jack and ready to act. Three to two. Jack had no doubt the Deep Eyes would win, but someone would be hurt in the process, and he didn't want that if he could help it.

The tension filled the cabin of the transport.

And the silence, broken only by the engine sounds and the faint cussing from Owen in the cockpit.

Jack stood, braced against the transport's sudden movements, never taking his attention from the two men in front of him as Toshiko shouted to Owen, "Go left and over the ridge."

"Man, they are everywhere," Owen shouted back.

"I can see that," Toshiko said.

"So, which way?" Owen asked, the panic not far below the surface of his voice.

"No way is completely open," Toshiko said. "You're going to have to try to get between a couple of them."

"Oh, just great," Owen said.

Jack watched the two men pointing guns at him.

It was a stand-off inside and outside the transport.

And at his feet, the man he loved was dying. Something needed to happen and happen fast.

He just didn't know what.

*~*

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

He always thought the same thing, with every dream. It seemed to be the right image. He had become so familiar with the dream, it was as if he was observing it, not living in it. Yet the fear was still there. He felt the fear, observed it, wondered if it was his fear, or did it belong to the Phantom particles trapped inside his.

The ground under him, and the air around him, shook and rumbled. He turned to see a second alien army hurling itself at the first army. He stood in the middle, in the way of the two hordes of alien creatures carrying strange weapons. Energy weapons. He could see that now.

Each army was completely focused on the other.

And now he could see they were not Phantoms, but these creatures were actually alive. Only they were shaped in some of the Phantom shapes. And something about that bothered his. He just couldn't put his finger on what, exactly.

As he did every dream, he held his ears, trying to block the screaming and gunfire and the sounds of death, but the noise only increased as the two armies swarmed in battle, in and around him, fighting, yet not touching him.

He stood in the middle of it all, not believing all the anger and death, even after having this dream so many times, and in such detail.

Then, as before, the fighting suddenly 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.

He knew now they were not looking at him, but beyond him. He turned to look in the same direction.

A roaring sound slowly grew until it punched through the silence like a hammer pounding on the back of his head. Something else was coming.

And that something else was a wall of fire. Angry colours of orange and red covered everything, stretching from the ground to the sky and as far left as he could see to as far right.

A wall of fire was coming fast, destroying everything.

It would destroy him as well.

He knew it.

There was no escaping it.

The armies around him panicked and started to run, but he stood his ground. He knew instinctively, in his dream-state, that there was no place to run to. It was as if he was observing something that had already happened, not something that was happening.

The wall got closer and closer, moving impossibly fast. He stared into it, trying to understand it, see what it really was. Every nerve in his body wanted him to turn and run.

Every thought said stay. This was only a dream. He needed to understand the dream.

But all he saw was a world being destroyed, completely and totally.

As the heat started to bubble and melt everything around him, he screamed-