This is a very long Act. Sorry. It was unavoidable...I was bound to have a long explain everything act. In two parts. Ack.


Author: d8rkmessngr
Pairing: Jack/OMC, Jack/?, Jack/Ianto eventually, het and slash
Rating: NC-17
Summary: He left Jack on the game station. Abandoned. But then...he came back...different. An AU look on what happens if things happened differently. Doctor Who'verse with Torchwood later on.

Disclaimer: RTD and BBC owns them. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Warnings: Please read each chapter's individual warnings. Some parts down the road may briefly mention non-con, abuse, and/or violence. Dark in the beginning. Please note there are some dark thoughts as my boys are broken…for now. Each chapter will be labeled for your convenience.

Author's Notes: Please note this is an AU that will cross over DW to TW season one. I'm probably spoiling my own story, but it will eventually be Janto. There's a bit of a journey first. I hope you enjoy. I'm working on this and intend to post regularly every other day. And again, I always believe in happy endings. So without further ado…

Warning For This Chapter: strong language, dark, angsty, disturbing imagery (a matter of reader's interpretation, though)

Notes For This Chapter: Note there are parallels to DW's "The Sound of Drums"




Prologue + Ch , Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch. 12, Ch. 13, Ch. 14, Ch. 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18, Ch 19 , Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24 , Ch 25, Ch 26, Ch 27, Ch 28, Ch 29, Ch 30, Ch 31, Ch 32, Ch 33, Ch 34, Ch 35, Ch 36 Ch 37 1/7, Ch 37 2/7, Ch 37 3/7, Ch 37 4/7, Ch 37 5/7






Act VI: "What do we do?"
Somewhere in London
Present day…

The empty streets were damp from the evening drizzle and the thin rows of trees that lined the sidewalks lent the arcade an otherworldly feel. Right now, another planet probably be better, Martha fumed.

Martha looked up from her pacing and breathed out a sigh when she saw the two men trotting down the deserted shopping arcade. The Doctor had assured her they would return.

When the two drew closer however, Martha's relief faded. They were pale, too pale, and as ashen as when they first came across the bound Jack Harkness in MOD.

"Sorry about that. Misunderstanding," Jack Harkness quipped. Ianto stayed by his right elbow, so close, he was a shadow. He bared his teeth at Martha in a smile. It looked forced.

"Thought you two would be at Cardiff by now!" Martha exclaimed, relief and frustration jumbled her words up into a mess. "Not that it would have helped because it looks like he has his miserable fingers in every corner. He's even got Tish and if Leo doesn't go under-"

"Who?" Ianto interrupted before Martha could launch into the panic she could feel bubbling in her gut. "Who, Martha? Who?"

"Saxon! Leo finally called back. I was talking to my brother Leo when he...he..." Martha waved towards the row of closed shops. The Doctor was pacing back and forth in front of one with her mobile pressed to his ear. "He suddenly came into the line. The Doctor's talking to him right now."

"The Master?" Jack spoke up in a flat voice.

Martha glanced over to Jack. His expression revealed...nothing. Absolutely nothing. The Captain stared back at her without even a twitch. He stood with his arms stiff and unnatural by his sides. He didn't act like he cared the back of his shirt was stained with dry blood for all to see.

Ianto kept checking Jack and made no attempt to be secretive about it, but Jack either didn't notice or cared. Ianto turned back towards Martha, his expression haggard.

"What are they saying to each other?" Ianto glanced over to the Doctor, who was now seated, the mobile close to his mouth.

"Something about a war, I don't know!" Martha bit her lower lip. She was still shaking-with anger, with fear, she wasn't sure. "The Master kept babbling on the phone with me about some sort of drumming, that we took something from him, about..." She paused.

"About me," Jack said stiffly. He cracked a smirk. It looked painful. "I'm flattered."

Martha spied Ianto reaching for Jack's hand but Jack abruptly tucked them into his trouser pockets.

"He misses his Companion." Jack flashed her a grin that was too bright, too perfect that all Martha could feel was an ache in her chest seeing it. "Can you blame him?"

"Jack," Ianto murmured, distressed.

Jack inhaled, a deep intake that jerked his body. Martha spied his right hand opening and closing before he spoke again, his voice steadier.

"Do we know where the rest of our team is? Gwen and the others?" Jack didn't look at Ianto. His voice was brisk. "You said you found no record of them being there."

"The Doctor didn't see anything," Martha recalled. She dropped heavily into the concrete benches. Her knee bounced as she gnawed on her lower lip. "He'd hacked into MOD's servers and there was no mention."

Jack frowned. "First time I'd tried to escape, there was this man...some sort of scientist there muttering about an execution."

"Execution?" Martha exclaimed. "Here? In Britain? For what?" What did that mean for her mum and dad? And Tish?

"Terrorism. For opening the Rift," Jack murmured.

Martha snapped her fingers. "That's right! When we landed in Cardiff, the Doctor did say that the rift had been active."

"You know," Jack commented lightly, "a few minutes earlier..." His face clouded over.

"Well, the Doctor never could get the TARDIS to listen to him properly," Martha joked. She made an odd chuckle and wished it banished the shadows from both men's eyes. It didn't. "I'd been traveling with him for nearly a year and I have yet to see him land on target."

A light dimmed Jack's eyes. "A year, huh?"

Martha had the feeling she said something she shouldn't have. She cleared her throat.

"I heard you were with the Doctor for a time," Martha began tentatively. "That you were-"

"His Companion?" Jack's face screwed up. "You could say that." Jack snorted. "Well...depends on which Doctor you're referring to."

Martha's forehead lined. "Huh?"

"Jack," Ianto tried again. "Don't do this to your-"

"Do what?" Jack spun around and stared hard at Ianto. "What? What did I do?"

Ianto matched his gaze, but then something flickered in his stare and Ianto's eyes dull with pain, but Martha doubted it was for himself.

Jack's eyes shifted sideways. Jack coughed into a fist.

"Jack-"

"Just leave it," Jack said gruffly.

"You can't blame your-"

"Ianto. Don't." Ianto clamped his mouth up.

Martha squirmed in her seat. She averted her eyes. It felt like she was intruding, that she walked in on a conversation she shouldn't have. She was grateful when she saw the Doctor gesturing.

When they approached the Doctor, he pointed to a shop window. Martha gaped at the images of the Doctor, Ianto Jones and herself on the telly.

"Tell me how you done this. What are those creatures? Tell me!" the Doctor demanded to her mobile, his voice low. He jabbed a finger on the glass, leaving a finger mark on the surface.

"...consider to be armed and extremely dangerous," the anchorwoman was saying as their photos lined up on the screen.

Martha placed her hands on the glass. "Look!" she pointed as the screen changed to a smaller video of people being carted away, forced to board a plane. The screen had 'Terrorists captured' branded at the bottom.

"Jack," Ianto hissed.

"I see them," Jack said grimly.

"He is not your Companion!"

Both Ianto and Martha jumped at the Doctor's fury. Jack, on the other hand, only watched the telly, his jaw clenched.

"You have no right to interfere with him! He wasn't yours to-" The Doctor spun around and his eyes widened when they landed on Jack, as if seeing him for the first time. The Doctor winced and turned around again.

"You know," Jack said conversationally, his eyes glued to the monitor, "all this attention is really embarrassing." Jack's mouth quirked into a grin towards Martha. "I'm actually a shy person. Isn't that right, Ianto?"

"Painfully so, sir," Ianto returned with a weak smile. He watched Jack the whole time.

"Don't do this. I can help you. You could stop this right now, we could leave this planet. We can fight across the constellations if that's what you want. But not on Earth."

Martha gave Ianto and Jack a worried look. Jack's expression was stony.

"If you won't let me help you," the Doctor hissed. "Then, I'm sorry, I must stop you."

The Doctor's arguing was growing louder, no longer the often-cheerful tone he favored. Still talking, the Doctor's gestures didn't grow wild with his anger; rather, his limbs seem to grow jerky, more contained as if rope wound tighter and tighter around his body.

It was frightening to watch as the Doctor darkened, his eyes stormy with an anger Martha had ever seen even when they were in Torchwood.

"You did what?" the Doctor breathed. He spun back around to stare at Jack with what looked like shock.

"That's a UNIT plane they're getting on," Jack said quietly, still watching the newscast, but Martha caught him darting a furtive look at the Doctor. "If we can get the flight plan, we'll know where they're being taken."

Ianto leaned in and squint at the screen. "We could use Martha's computer and track it down."

Martha patted the laptop she was holding along with the folded greatcoat. "Lucky thing this has a good battery life!" she quipped.

Martha handed it back the coat when she caught Jack staring at it. She observed silently as Jack shrug into it and buttoned it all the way to his throat. Perhaps he was cold, Martha guessed. It certainly suited him though the coat was more World War two than twenty first century.

The Doctor's gone quiet now, his face serious as he listened. He frowned mildly, rotating slowly until he looked up to his right. Everyone else did the same.

"He can see us!" the Doctor snarled, seeing the CCTV camera blinking at him.

Martha flinched when she realized the camera was moving, tracking them. It stilled on Jack and her mobile in the Doctor's hand cackled.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and fired at the CCTV camera. The camera burst into sparks and metal shards.

The Doctor rested back on the shop glass. He looked stunned. "He's got control of everything."

Martha flinched as the camera sizzled above them. It sounded like an angry snake. "What do we do?"

"He has Torchwood. We've got no one to help us," Ianto added, gravely. Jack set his mouth, his eyes hard.

The Doctor gazed at Jack with an unreadable expression. Jack, on the other hand, stared at a point past the Doctor's ear.

"Doctor," Martha called out sharply.

The Doctor stirred and looked at her, almost dazed.

"What do we do?" Martha repeated.

The mobile he still held buzzed with Saxon's taunts. The Doctor grimaced and shut it off. He looked at all of them, his eyes settling on Jack again. The Doctor pursed his lips.

"We run."



Lucy found him seated at the head of the empty table, the vacant cabinet seats turned towards him, the mobile smashed to bits. Harry stared out the shuttered window as if they were transparent, as if he could see the rain outside.

"He has him," Harry murmured, his fingers tapping on the table by his empty drink glass. "My Captain. He took him."

Lucy jumped when Harry's fingers curled into a fist and thumped and thumped the mahogany table. Knuckles slowly blotched first pink, then red.

"Harry!" Lucy slipped her hand under his fist and cried out when it smashed into her hand instead. Harry drew his fist back immediately. His face was contrite as he cradled her reddened hand.

"Ah my darling," Harry murmured. He uncurled her hand and inspected it. "My poor, poor Lucy. My most faithful Companion. I'm so sorry."

Harry drew her hand to his lips and kissed each fingertip. Lucy swallowed back a whimper.

"So loyal," Harry muttered. "To the very end." His smile was fragile. "You came back for me, awaken me, died for me...ah, Lucy...I had to find you again."

Harry always spoke in riddles. Even when she first met him, when she was in his TARDIS, and when they hovered above a burning Canary Wharf, Harry was succinct about his thoughts, his plans. When they witnessed Utopia's truth and watched all those bright, shining faces of hope crumble into horror, Harry would only say things were as they should be.

"I've tasted the Vortex. I've seen what needs to be corrected." Harry's eyes shone with the same hunger as before. "I know why I failed before. The Doctor watched two civilizations burn, but he is no god. He is only as powerful as the allies who stand by him." Harry petted the hand he held.

"One by one, his children of time will fall and the Doctor will be cowed."

Harry gave her a pitying look. "You had tried to kill one for me, but died."

"I'm sorry," Lucy murmured even if she didn't understand her crime.

"No matter," Harry reassured her. His lips lingered on her knuckles and pulled back from her hand with reluctance.

"I have dealt with the other myself." His smile grew feral and Lucy shivered. "He didn't break before. Always the Doctor's freak, all smug and brave, smirking while I bled him and ripped his insides apart." Harry chuckled and his grip shrank around her hand.

"Not this time. No, not this time. He can hear the drumming like me now. He will shatter before me and I will rebuild him. My Captain." Harry's eyes shone with his breathy vow.

Lucy kept her smile pasted firmly on her face. She said nothing about the twitch in his touch. She knew he needed what was siphoned, thirst it more like water. It frightened her; Harry's eyes sometimes goes white after he was with it, his voice faraway as if he was out of her reach.

But it didn't matter. It was gone now and she was still here. She may not hear the drumming like they do, but she was his Companion, his wife. Lucy preened under his tender attentions, so lost in his voice that she wasn't careful.

"I stayed with you Harry. Not him. He doesn't deserve you. He left you-"

Lucy cried out when a hot palm whipped across her face. Lucy, her eyes filling, held her throbbing cheek.

"Harry," she choked. Her eyes watered with agony. "I-I'm sorry."

"We should get some makeup for that," Harry said mildly. He stroked the heated cheek with a gentle finger, but his eyes warned against repeating what she said. "We are meeting President Winters tomorrow." He patted her arm. "Must look presentable."

Lucy nodded numbly and followed Harry out.



Part 2