The Spirits Within

Chapter: 13/21 + 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 13

General Hart leaned in over Major Smith to check out the board in front of him. It showed the activity of the Phantoms entering Sector 31 on a holographic map. So far, so good. It was just about time to button things up again and then clean up the mess.

Above him, on the massive wall holograph of the entire Barrier system, Sector 31 still showed a flashing red. On the other wall holograph, the entire area of Sector 31 showed solid Phantom infestation.

"How many have entered?" Hart asked.

Major Smith worked the board in front of him, but no exact number appeared. "Not sure, exactly sir," Smith said. "A lot of them, from what I can tell."

"Excellent," Hart said. That was exactly what he had wanted. This would give the Council a good scare and get them moving. "Start the procedure to bring back up Sector 31's barrier. Are there squads moving in to clean up the Phantoms?"

"Yes, sir," Smith said.

"Are they being contained?"

"So far they are, sir," Smith said.

"Perfect," General Hart said. "Now we just wait until it's all cleaned up. And by tomorrow, the Hub Cannon will have wiped the home nest of these creatures from the face of the planet." Hart paced back and forth as his men worked to re-establish the barrier over Sector 31. He knew this plan would work. He had had no doubt at all. And he had been right. It was working like clockwork.

Major Smith and the others almost had the Sector 31 barrier power back up when things went wrong.

"Sir!" Major Smith said, panic clear in his voice, "I have numerous Phantom contacts."

"Of course you do," he said.

"Outside of Sector 31, sir," Major Smith said, without turning away from his control panel. "And they're moving at incredible speed."

General Hart glanced up at the big board. It showed Phantom contacts moving out from Sector 31 far faster than possible. He moved over to Major Smith.

"What the hell is going on here? I thought you said they were contained?"

"It's not a computer error, sir," he said. "I checked that first. Somehow they are moving in the pipes."

General Hart shook his head. Major Smith wasn't making any sense at all. "What pipes?"

"Sir," Smith said, "they're moving with the bio-etheric energy flow."

That wasn't possible. The energy flow was what powered the barriers. Phantoms couldn't move or even exist in that flow. He glanced up at the holographic map on the wall. What he saw made his entire body shake. It showed hundreds of Phantoms dispersing at an incredible speed throughout the city.

"That's impossible!" he shouted. "Nothing living could survive in those pipes."

"We've got a big one heading this way, sir," one of the men said.

Again he leaned in over the major's shoulder to study the board. The man was right. There was a large snake-like Phantom headed inbound.

General Hart glanced around. None of his men were armed with any kind of weapon that could fight a Phantom. They only wore their bullet-firing side arms. And never had a bullet stopped a Phantom.

Also, none of these men had any real experience with Phantoms. They had dealt with humans, leaving the Phantom fighting to the likes of Captain Jack and his men.

Through the window the energy in the pipes illuminated the long, massive Phantom as it got closer.

"Oh, my god," Major Smith said, staring at it.

Two of the other men started to raise their pistols to fire at the snake inside the energy pipe.

"Hold your fire!" he shouted at them as the snake disappeared through the flooring. "Are you nuts?"

They both looked terrified, but somehow they managed to retake their positions again.

Was he the only one around there who could think? The bullets from their pistols wouldn't hurt the Phantom, but they might break open the energy pipes, killing them all even faster than the Phantom would.

"Get Sector 31 buttoned up!" he ordered. "Do it fast! We can still keep this under control if we move quickly."

The men jumped back to work, racing to complete the process they had already started. Suddenly the snake came up out of the floor, its shape vaguely illuminated by the light from the ovo-pipes. It snapped around the man sitting at the energy controls, flowing through him as if he wasn't there.

The man stiffened and then slumped forward, dead. The Phantom had taken the life out of him instantly.

A soldier to Hart's right opened fire on the snake with his pistol, and two others did the same.

"Hold your fire!" Hart shouted, ducking as the bullets bounced around the room. The snake turned and headed for the three men and they kept firing, backing up as they went. The rounds from their guns pounded into the control panels, sending smoke and parts flying, but doing nothing to the snake-like Phantom.

"Cease fire, damn it!" General Hart shouted.

They finally complied as the Phantom dropped down through the floor again, but the damage had been done. One of the main boards had been hit, and the ovo-tank it controlled started to react to the sudden fluctuation.

Suddenly, beyond the window of the control room, in the massive main pumping room, there was a muffled explosion as one of the pipelines burst, causing the next, and then the next to let go.

Red lights started to fill the board as, around the city, sector after sector of the barrier failed.

General Hart watched in horror as the lights flickered and went out, plunging the room into darkness.

Another of his men screamed as the Phantom tore the life force from his body.

A moment later the emergency lights came up. Emergency power flickered back into the panels and the map on the wall lit up again, showing that most of the barrier over the entire city was gone.

“Oh, God, what’ve I done?’ Hart whispered in horror.

Two of the soldiers began to fire at the snake again as Major Smith worked at the emergency-powered board, trying to do anything to get the barrier up again.

Suddenly one of the bullets bounced off a panel and hit the major squarely in the chest. Hart watched as the major slumped out of the chair, a hand covered in blood pressed to his chest.

"What happened?" the major asked.

"It went wrong," Hart said. Then, as he watched, the light went out of the major's eyes.

The Phantom came up out of the flooring and swiped the soldier standing beside General Hart, killing him instantly. The man slumped to the floor on top of the major.

General Hart turned. It was time to get out of here and out of the city. He ran for the door. "Open it and get out!" he shouted to the man inside the booth.

The last man inside the door-security control room punched the door open just as the Phantom came up and killed him. Beyond the main window of the control room another ovo-tank exploded in flashes of bright orange and blue light. General Hart knew there was no saving this city now. He had destroyed it.

And killed everyone in it.

Hart ran from the control room and onto the emergency elevator as the computer-activated voice repeated over and over the nearest evacuation point.

If he was lucky, he'd make it to the military evac area. But at that moment he wasn't sure he wanted to.

*~*

The conversation in the cell block had almost ceased. Jack was even starting to believe Ianto's point of view about the dream and the Phantoms. It sure explained a lot. No wonder humans experienced such a problem fighting the Phantoms. Humans had always thought of them as an invading army, when really they were nothing more than a bunch of ghosts. Very deadly and unhappy ghosts, but ghosts nonetheless.

"Come on, Owen," Jack said to his man directly across from him. "We need to think of a way out. Now you're our man, so don't let me down. Think.''

He smiled at the shocked look on Owen's face. "Captain, these walls are titanium alloy and the bars are pulsonic lasers."

"So?" Jack asked, smiling at Owen.

"So?" Owen asked. "It's not as if I can just wave a magic wand and—"

As Owen waved his arm in the air, the lights flickered and the cell doors slid opened.

"Hold your positions, everyone!" Jack ordered. He had no idea what had just happened, but he didn't like the looks of it.

He stood and cautiously stepped out into the hall. It wouldn't be beyond General Hart to shoot them in a made-up jail break, just to get rid of them. At this point anything was possible.

He glanced down the hallway toward the main door, which had also swung open. From the looks of this, some sort of automatic release system had been triggered. And the only thing that would do that would be Phantoms loose inside the barrier.

That thought made him shudder.

He waited. His people stood ready to move.

No one said a word.

No guard appeared. This sure didn't have the makings of a trap. And if it wasn't a trap, then Phantoms were in the city.

"Clear," Jack said. "I think we had better get moving."

Ianto stepped out and looked at him with a puzzled frown.

"Owen," Jack said, "I'm impressed at your magical abilities with hand-waving."

Owen grunted as he stepped into the hall. "That makes two of us."

Suddenly a computer voice filled the hallway. "Please proceed to the nearest evacuation facility. Proceed to the nearest evacuation facility."

Over and over the message repeated as they all stood there, shocked.

It was worse than Jack had even feared. Parts of the barrier had to be completely down if they were ordering an evacuation of the entire city. Ianto and the Doctor looked stunned, their faces white.

Owen nodded, repeating the computer message that droned on and on. "I think we should proceed to the nearest evacuation facility."

"Great idea," Jack said.

"What do you think has happened?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know," Jack said, "but it can't be good."

"I thought the Doctor was the master of understatements," Owen said.

When they reached the centre area of the cell block, there was no one to be seen, and no weapons that would be of any use against a Phantom. The light over the emergency elevator was blinking green and the door was standing open, waiting. Emergency elevators were only activated in times like this. They were high speed and only had one stop, the top level where the evacuation

pods were supposed to be.

Jack herded them all into the elevator and punched the button. The force of the fast lift pushed against them. The Doctor would have dropped to his knees if Ianto hadn't held him up.

The quick stop at the top almost left them weightless. The door slid open and they all piled out onto a long catwalk as behind them the elevator closed and dropped back to its ready position in the cell block.

A computer voice told them how to get to the nearest escape-pod launching sight as they moved away from the building and stopped.

The catwalk overlooked the entire city. Jack was stunned at what he saw. The entire barrier was gone, the energy-towers sticking into the sky like candles in a cake. There were large explosions coming from the centre that powered the barrier, sending blue light over everything. That ovo-energy light was making the Phantoms visible to the naked eye, and they seemed to be everywhere, both on the ground and in the air.

People were running through the streets below, and escape pods rose throughout the city, their jets taking survivors to safety. Jack knew there weren't enough pods for everyone, but with this type of massive barrier failure, most of the population would be dead before they reached a pod.

"Bollocks," Owen said. "We need some weapons."

"And we need to get to my ship," Ianto said, staring at the mob scene on the rooftop across from them.

The Doctor nodded. "I agree. That's the safest place we could be right now."

"I bet it was towed into the city," Owen said. "It would be in the military hanger."

"I'm sure it is," Jack said. "I saw the report on it."

"So we go there," Ianto said.

Below them a massive explosion shook the catwalk. Bright yellow and orange flames shot out everywhere, covering entire buildings. Jack had no doubt that, just as with the original London, this New London was doomed. Maybe someday there would be a third.

"You're right," Jack said. "Let's go."

They had almost made the first bank of regular elevators of the building they had been jailed in when Owen shouted, "Here they come!"

The Phantoms seemed to emerge from everywhere around them. Most of them were the size of humans, with flowing odd forms visible because of the ovo-energy covering the area.

Suddenly one of them came up through the floor of the catwalk, almost in the middle of the group. Since Jack and Ianto had been leading, they were cut off from the rest of the group as everyone moved to get out of the way.

The Phantom hesitated, then turned toward Jack and Ianto.

"Meet at the hanger!" Jack shouted.

Rhys nodded, twisted the Doctor around, and started running back the way they had come.

Jack grabbed Ianto's arm and pulled him as fast as they could run down the hall and then out along a covered walkway to another building as the Phantom moved to follow them.

"But the others?" Ianto shouted over an explosion below. "And the Doctor!"

"The Deep Eyes will take care of him!" Jack shouted back. At the moment he was much more concerned about the two of them. Without a weapon of any sort, the only hope they had was avoiding the Phantoms they could see. He just hoped there weren't any they couldn't see.

At the bank of elevators at an intersection of three corridors in the next building, they both pushed the down buttons frantically. The normal elevators never seemed to arrive when he needed one, and right now was no exception.

"Jack!" Ianto said, grabbing his arm and pointing at a Phantom coming down the hall slowly at them. This building had been some sort of office complex, and the Phantom was far bigger than the wide hall.

Jack punched the down button again, then looked for a place they could run. There was another Phantom halfway down the hall to the left, so that wasn't going to work. The right corridor looked clear, but for how long?

Finally, one of the elevator doors slid open with a ding that was barely audible over the explosions.

Jack yanked Ianto inside and hit the button for the train-station level, and then the door-closed button, watching as the Phantom kept coming and coming.

It seemed as if the door would never close. With the Phantom less than ten meters away, finally the door slid closed. Jack pulled Ianto to the very back of the elevator as the Phantom drifted through the door, coming right at them. It was just about to pass over both of them, killing them instantly, when the elevator dropped.

The Phantom disappeared through the ceiling.

"Too close," Ianto said, letting out a breath he had been holding. "Why are we able to see them, even in the elevator?"

"I don't know," Jack said. "Maybe they’re carrying residual charges from the ovo-energy explosions."

"That would make sense," Ianto said. "At least we're safe for the moment."

"Just hope the elevator doesn't pass through one on the way down."

"I wish you hadn't said that." They both stared at the floor the entire rest of the way down.

The door opened with another ding. A computer voice said, "Trains are not operating. We apologise for the inconvenience."

Jack eased himself into the doorway of the elevator, blocking the door open. The station platform was like a battlefield of horror. Corpses were piled on top of each other, and the staircase leading to the next level was at least six or seven deep with bodies.

A train car had been at the station when the barrier dropped. A dozen bodies were still in the closest car, and on one car an automatic door was opening and closing on a body, the computer voice repeating over and over: "Please stand out of the door."

"We've got to move," Jack said, pulling Ianto out of the elevator. He grabbed a middle-aged man's body and pulled him a few feet to block open the elevator in case they needed it.

Then, carefully, trying to step around the bodies where they could, they headed for the far end of the train. They hadn't gone more than twenty steps when a Phantom came up out of the floor, as if it were coming right out of a body.

"Damn," Jack said.

Another Phantom, and then another appeared. They were trapped and there was just no way out of there. They were going to have to try their luck on another level.

"Back to the elevator," Jack said as three of the Phantoms started toward them.

Suddenly, from the right, there was a loud crash and an armoured jeep smashed down the staircase, shoving bodies aside as it came.

Jack couldn’t believe his eyes. Owen was behind the wheel, with the Doctor holding on for dear life in the passenger seat. Rhys and Toshiko had weapons, and the minute the jeep hit the terminal floor they opened up on the approaching Phantoms, vaporizing them instantly.

"All aboard, Captain!" Rhys shouted as Owen slid the jeep to a halt, scattering bodies in all directions. Rhys tossed him a rifle as they climbed on board, then handed another one to Ianto.

Toshiko was still firing as more and more Phantoms came up out of the floor, through the bodies.

Owen hit the accelerator, the jeep bumping over the dead as it left the platform and landed down on the rail tracks in the direction the stalled train had been heading.

"Where'd you find the equipment?" Jack shouted over the noise of Toshiko firing to keep their path clear and the jeep bouncing on the rough tracks.

"Council security headquarters," Rhys said. "The Doctor figured they wouldn't be using it since they had already evacuated. And it was close by. Just our luck."

Jack just shook his head. Sometimes it was better to be lucky than good. To make it to Ianto's ship, even with weapons and a jeep, they were going to need a lot of luck.