| Date: 18 January 2008
Characters: Ianto Jones, Owen Harper Location: hotel lobby Link to IJ: thread #40220 |
 Ianto wandered out of the archives of Torchwood Three. It was still disorganized, still mildewy and old, papers unorganized and not put into the computer files yet. He had a file folder with the field report of a 1903 agent open in his hands, so he could read the scratchy scrawl on the yellowed paper as he walked, head bobbing with his ipod. It was a Saturday so he was in jeans and a polo shirt; he didn't expect anyone else to be in, so he was more casual than his usual wont.He only made it four steps off the concrete floor of the archives and onto the tiled floor of the hotel lobby before he felt the difference on his feet. He looked up from the file folder and took his head phones out of his ears. "...Again?" |
 "Again, what?" Owen asked from where he was sitting, leaning back in the chair. He hadn't noticed Ianto enter from any of the apparent entrances and exits. But, well, that didn't seem to matter much here, really."All right there, Jones?" Owen asked with a teasing smile on his face, appraising the figure in front of him. At least he seemed to be holding himself like that Ianto that Owen knew. |
| Ianto carefully tucked the paper into the file folder, his ipod into his pocket, and straightened his shirt. It took about four seconds. "Is this from the Rift, Doctor? Like the time I walked into the kitchen and came back with the pterodactyl?" |
| "Somehow I doubt it," Owen said, nodding to the chair nearby him. "I wasn't anywhere near Cardiff when I got yanked through to here. This place seems to have its own rules when it comes to that kind of stuff." |
| Ianto sat down, shifting the chair so he was facing Owen, "Where were you then?" |
| "On board a ship called the Valiant," Owen said, shaking his head slowly. "And don't ask. You honestly don't want to know. What about you? When are you?" |
| "When am I- ah." He shook his head, "October, 2007. When for you?" |
| "Hard to say, exactly. Somewhere around November 2008." |
| "Should we be talking?" |
| "I'm not going to tell you anything. You wouldn't want me to bore you with it. And I already know everything you'd have to tell me. So why not?" |
| "Fair enough. How long have you been here?" |
| "A couple weeks," Owen said, studying Ianto curiously. He looked...different somehow. It was hard for Owen to really saw what it was, but there was something. "You get used to it after awhile." |
| "What is it?" Ianto leaned in, curious. |
| "You look different than I remember," Owen said. "October, did you say?" |
| "Yes, what about it?" Ianto frowned at him. |
| And that was when it hit Owen just what was different. October had been when the whole situation with Lisa had happened, and after that, Ianto had carried himself that much heavier than he had before. But this someone wasn't doing that. "What was the last mission that you lot did?" |
| "That machine, with the ghosts," Ianto said, fairly vaguely. |
| "Yeah. Didn't much care for that thing," Owen said, scowling to himself. "How long ago was that?" |
| "We all know you didn't," Ianto said dryly, fingers drumming on the table. They'd all heard the bitching for the last... "Two weeks. Why?" |
| Two weeks. Two weeks, and it should have happened already. "Not...hiding anything in the basement, are you?" |
| "...More filing?" Ianto looked confused. "What are you talking about?" |
| "...a half finished cyberwoman and a fully functioning cyber conversion machine?" |
| "...What? That's not possible. All the cybermen went into the void at the-" Ianto stopped himself, turning his head and looking a little sick before composing himself and turning back, "Everyone who was captured by the cybermen were sucked into the void- along with all their equipment. Sir." |
| "Oh, stop with the sir, shit. You don't believe that anymore than I think you do," Owen said, snorting before shaking his head. "Not all of it. There were people left behind. People who hadn't been fully converted, people who had just had limbs or chunks of them ripped off and pulled into the void. Half converted people who died slowly as the machinery took over their mind or had to be put down because they were already mad." Owen looked up at Ianto, "I had to do clean up duty, Jones. I know what was there." |
| "So was I." |
| Owen watched Ianto for a long moment, "So there wasn't anyone left with you?" |
| "87 others, Owen," he said a little tightly. |
| "I mean other than the lot that actually made it out alive. No scattered body pieces? Messes of blood everywhere? Machines still working even if they didn't have anything to work on?" |
| "No one who lived past a week," Ianto wrapped his arms around himself, "Do we have to talk about this? You know this." |
| Shit. He hadn't meant to press it that much. Owen hadn't been at Torchwood One. He'd only been pulled it after everything had settled down to help out the people that had been injured but made it out allive and to try and figure out some way to help that half converted people. They'd never managed anything that actually worked. "I know what I know. Not what you know," Owen said, frowning heavily. "Are you sure you're not keeping anything in the basement?" |
| "What the hell do you think I'm keeping down there, Owen? A fucking cyberman? Do I look insane?" Ianto snapped. |
| "Cyberwoman, and I didn't think so. Wasn't so sure after we ended up getting sieged by your psychopath of a former girlfriend." |
| "...What?" Ianto looked a bit gut punched. |
| Owen stopped at the look, back peddling quickly, "It doesn't matter. It's obviously another universe." |
| "Obviously. Tell me anyway." |
| "You were keeping that girl... Lisa, in the basement, in the hopes of...unconverting her." |
| "Lisa died." He looked like he wanted to hit something. Not Owen, by some fortune, but something. He'd never told any of them about Lisa. There was no reason to think he would. And the Owen he knew wasn't cruel enough to make something like that up. Ianto knew himself well enough to know he would have tried if she hadn't had her mechanical heart sucked out of her, into the void. |
| Owen frowned softly, leaning over and settling a hand on Ianto's arm, "It was the best thing," He said. "I worked with some of the people, after. Some of the unconverted who survived. They had moments where they were themselves... But those never lasted long." |
| "They'd have wanted to die in th end." |
| "Most of them, yeah," Owen said, frowning a bit. He didn't see any point in mentioning the whole bit where Lisa kinda...didn't. Not that she was very balanced about the whole thing. "There's a bar on this floor, if you need a drink." |
| "I think I need several," he looked unsteady, like a giant hand had pushed him. He stood without swaying though, "Which way?" |
| Owen stood as well, moving over and settling a hand on Ianto's shoulder to lead him, "Just round the corner. You can order pretty much anything you want, and you'll get it." |
| Ianto didn't flinch, letting Owen move him ,"I'm a creative man, Owen. The bar can't be that good." |
| "It's got liquor I haven't even seen before. I'm tempted to order a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, just to see what I'd get." |
| "A copyright suite from Douglas Adams," Ianto said promptly, absently. |