Written: July 25 2008
Disclaimer: I don't own, nor claim to own Torchwood or Doctor Who. Both series are owned, copyright, and trademark of BBC and BBC Worldwide.
WARNING: This fic contains but is not limited to: m/m innuendo, angst, adult language and situations, and all around sci-fi time travel paradox weirdness. This is a Doctor Who/Torchwood crossover fanfic. You have been warned.
Ripple Effect
Chapter Two - Pulling Rank
Now Jack understood why the Commander didn't want any of the team doing the dirty work but him. The Cybermen were vicious, cold, and uncaring creatures of destruction. Not that he didn't already know that about them, but with how many times he had been shot down and gotten back up just from this mission alone, it only served to punctuate it for him much more clearly.
There wasn't anyone else that could go just walk up and confront one of them, get killed, and then catch an element of surprise. They took out as many as they could before Ianto would activate the Bad Wolfe's tractor beam and literally push the metal monstrosities back into the Rift portals.
"I'm starting to think you like this sort of thing!" JJ shouted as they finished up on one site and moved on to the next.
"Nothing like saving the world to end a day," Jack replied, following the somewhat younger Harkness.
"Jack, we've got three more hotspots to go," Gwen said in his ear.
"How's Donna doing on the Flush?"
"We're at 85% and rising," came Donna's reply. "Get as many as you can in there before I initiate the full blast. And JJ, you stay clear of those portals when I do."
"Yes ma'am," he said with a grin.
---
"Ma'am, we've got a lock on the Bad Wolfe!"
"What?!" she exclaimed. "Where?"
"Earth. 2009 looks like," said the officer at the LCD screen.
"Details!" she snapped.
He nodded, pushing up his glasses and bringing up another screen on the monitor. "We've tracked it down to England. There's a slight spike in what appears to be Time-Space Rift activity."
"Alright crew!" she shouted happily. "Make ready to materialize! We've found the Commander!"
"Yes ma'am Captain Smith!" many of her ship's crew replied as she moved to the main controls of her hodge-podge TARDIS.
The young man at the screen's eyes went wide as he read further into the details. But it was already too late. The engines were making that oh so distinct sound, like ripping into the time vortex. He didn't have time to warn her.
---
"That should be the last of them!"
JJ nodded, tapping his wrist device and shouting over the sounds of metal grinding on metal. "Gwen!"
"Here and ready," she replied.
"As soon as we're clear of the site, you and Donna start the machine! Ianto! Sweep the beam this way. It should provide us with enough cover to keep from getting sucked in when the Flush starts!"
"Yes sir," Ianto replied. He noted a slight hessitation in his voice.
"Don't worry. Just keep an eye on those readings. If things look like they're about to go bad, don't hessitate. Remember what I told you."
Jack turned his head to look at him, and that glare sent icy chills down the young Time Lord's spine. He pointed up to the ship, to the tractor beam sweeping back down to cover their escape.
He shouted as best he could over the sounds of destruction around them. "RUN! There isn't much time!"
Run. It seemed to Jack to be what Time Lords did best. He wasn't liking following the other man's orders. He preffered to be the one running the show, especially in front of his team. But he was swallowing his pride. There was something this man knew, and it was whatever that was locked in his head that was keeping the members of Torchwood in the present alive and well, for the time being. To risk that, the lives of Gwen and Ianto, was something he didn't want to find himself doing.
The pair ran, pushing themselves to go harder and faster than even they normally would. Leaping over debris, the tractor beam rising from the ground to the ship close behind them, keeping them safe as the suction began.
The Rift Flush, they'd called it. Whatever was clogging up the Rift was going to be pushed back out the other end, at the starting point. For some reason, the idea was losing favor with the Captain. It all seemed a little... suspicious to him. After all, something major like this happening and the Doctor not showing up to poke his nose in their business. Something wasn't right.
Before the night was over, Jack decided, he would get to the bottom of it.
---
[The Nothing]
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Got any better ones?" Hart suggested. "At least I came prepared," he said, tossing the young man a pistol. "Primative, but it should do."
"Gee, thanks," he muttered, the weight of it feeling strange, alien even, in his hand. In his time traveling with the Commander, he never once picked up a weapon other than matches or a lighter. And a rock. He couldn't forget the planet of strange creatures that saw the action of picking up a rock insanely god-like.
"What? Never held onto a real man's toy before?" Hart asked with a suggestive look.
The plan was to kill anything that moved. Not the brightest idea, considering they were alone in that world. But, as John put it best, "If it moves, it's bad. If it's bad, we kill it. If we kill it, we might get out of here."
It wasn't perfect logic. Hell, it wasn't even sound logic. But the unlikely pair were running out of options, and fast. According to a quick scan by the rogue agent, time didn't exist in this place, the Nothing. But outside it, and he was sure there still existed an outside according to Hart's claims, time continued on.
He wondered, how much time had passed for his fellow escapees now? Three years, when Hart arrived. That felt like days ago. Five? Six? Ten? Impossible to tell.
John snapped at him. "Hey, eyecandy!" His voice was gruff, even for him. "Are you going to keep daydreaming or what? We've got work to do!"
It snapped him from his thoughts, and he wrapped his hand tightly around the grip of the gun, deciding that he had time to come to terms with using it later. "We can't do anything until another false memory kicks in. Could be seconds, hours, weeks. There's no telling."
Hart grinned. "I think I have an idea how to make that come about," he said, holding his own firearm up, aimed between Quin's widening eyes.
---
Ianto pulled hard on the lever, reaching forward to slam his hand against a button before using his foot on, as JJ had explained, the tertiary flight mechanism beneath the main controls. It was tricky. His shoes, nice, clean, shiny even, felt clunky as he tried to press what he would call gear shifts down, switching from one to the next in a pattern to keep the alien ship upright.
He much preffered Toshiko's set up to the mis-matched and illegible controls of the ship. At least Toshiko had left behind a legacy in English and numbers rather than squiggled lines and symbols.
If he hadn't been so focused on the jumpy view out the main screen-shield (he'd decided to call it that since it doubled as a sort of protective windshield and a computer screen) he wouldn't have known to sweep the beam suddenly left and upwards to scoop up the two Harknesses clear of the debris of a crumbling building.
But his steady hand and head faltered, just a little. He shook his head, trying to get the ringing out of his ears and focus on his task.
"Ianto!" Gwen's voice shouted. "Ianto! Look out!"
The Bad Wolfe shook like an angry volcano. Her right flank slammed into a nearby building, shaking JJ and Jack free of the beam. The two dropped like bricks. Unable to stop, unable to keep from hitting the ground.
"Can anyone hear me?" Gwen asked, her voice a testament to forced calm. "Jack? Commander?" she said. She couldn't bear the thought of calling the other one by his name. It didn't sit right with her at all. "Ianto?"
"Steady girl, steady," Ianto groaned through the ringing in his ears, trying to level the ship out.
"I am registering energy signatures from a T-Type 2 craft," Donna said. "I'm sending a warning not to come closer until the Flush is complete."
Pain shot up the Welshman's spine before the ringing turned to gunfire. He lost his focus again, and the Bad Wolfe was about to go down.
"Initiating autopilot command 881."
The last thing Ianto heard was Gwen's voice, followed by gunfire and Donna's sharp shouting.
---
How could a situation go from worse to disasterous?
Jack had a few ideas.
Jack had lived through some of those ideas.
And Jack wasn't really sure if he liked that or not.
The sound of a TARDIS engine wasn't exactly the thing he had expected to hear as he plummeted toward the ground. Or rather, toward a slowly materialising hot pink refridgorator in the middle of a wartorn street.
His body slammed onto the top. He heard his ribcage crack. His vertibrae snap. His vision was foggy, and his hearing was no better.
The two side-by-side doors of the fridge flew open. Jack tried to lift his head when the doors hit his leg, but he couldn't move. He'd fallen off a building, snapped his back in two, but that didn't even compare to the pain pulsating through his body at that moment.
"MEDIC!" a woman shouted. "Two men down! I repeat! Two men down!"
He could see her in his peripheral vision. He wondered how far away JJ had landed.
Then, he thought of Owen. Of all the times to think of that chauvanist, he came to mind now. The living dead. He wondered, just for a moment, if this pain was what Owen had to deal with every day between his first and second deaths.
Jack groaned loudly as two men pulled him down from the top of the fridge to a waiting third a few feet away.
"Ianto," he said. "Check on Ianto."
The third man looked up to the others, and Jack didn't like what he saw, even through the fog. He'd seen that look on Owen, even Martha, more than once.
"Get them inside, quickly!" the woman shouted. "You there, take a few men and head towards the Hub! Raynor's picking up a distress call!"
Gwen. They'd left her alone in the Hub. Alone to run the computers with Donna. To keep an eye on the Rift.
He had a sinking feeling in his gut, and hoped he was wrong. He really hoped it was the curry take-away he'd had for breakfast that morning.
---
He woke to find himself under light so harsh it could have been studio grade lighting for a Hollywood set. Slowly, it adjusted, or maybe his eyes adjusted to it. Fading into a softer amber glow. Shapes began to take form, and a slight purring served a gentle background noise.
"Welcome to the land of the living, Captain," a woman's voice said. The same woman he had heard screaming for a medic.
He tried to shoot up, and when he did howled and fell back down on the soft pillows that had been placed under his head.
"You've been out for only an hour or so," she commented, some distance from him and his bed. "Quite frankly, I'm not surprised you survived that fall. What I am surprised about is that you really did survive it. A few more feet, and you'd've died again."
He turned his head to see her, and she was smiling. Blonde, a little on the short side. Bright blue eyes, a small, green tanktop that left little to the imagination. He smiled back at her, despite his state.
"Don't even think about it," she said before he could open his mouth to say hi in his usual, flirtatious tone.
"Where's"
"Torchwood's got everything under control."
"But the city!" the sound of his own shouts echoed harshly in his ears. He winced from the sound of it.
"We've checked the timeline to see what, or who we can place blame. World War 3 isn't that far off. A year or so. We're ascribing blame to North Korea. They've already got rockets with range capability to reach Brittania already. Shouldn't be too far of a stretch for the UN to believe."
He was mortified by how calmly she could rattle off such an idea. This was a far cry from covering up murders and the normal level of espianoge he and his team of now one operated under. He noticed a slight irony in the way he was hearing that, and thought of Gwen's reaction every time he calmly ordered another coverup of their latest finds and doings.
"A taste of your own medicine?" she asked with a slight chuckle.
There came a loud, authoritative voice from nowhere, and he knew who's it was. "All Torchwood officers report to Central Control. We've got a Code Red. I repeat, Code Red."
Jack started to get up again, but she came over quickly and put a hand on his chest. "No. Sit this one out, Jack. We can't afford to have you do more damage to yourself."
"I'll be fine in a few hours."
She shook her head. "Doctor's orders," she snapped in that offhand way he'd heard so many times before from another person's, from a man's lips. "Stay put, rest up."
"What about my team?" he asked once she'd left him and made it to the door.
She was quiet, and she did not turn around to face him. He imagined her expression. Was it one of loss? Grief? Uncertainty? "We're working on it," she said finally before leaving him.
The purring became a gentle hum, and Jack closed his eyes, trying not to think about his team, but finding it impossible to do so.
---
"Code Red! Is it the Daleks?"
He shook his head, leaning forward on the railing. "I'm afraid not. To compund our problems, the Bad Wolfe is down. The Rift machine is burnt out, and the Rift itself... Well... It's gone."
"What!?"
"There was a power spike when the T-Type landed. Literallt bounced it back into the Rift, which was undergoing a delicate procedure at the time." JJ explained.
Jenny glared at him, and he glared back. "Look, it was our only option. UNIT would have made the situation much worse, and many lives would have been lost in the progress. I activated the hidden autopilot system in the Cardiff Hub, and integrated it with the Donna Protocol. It was the only way we could manipulate the Rift and send it into full reverse."
"You're insane!" one of the officer shouted. "You've left this planet defenseless! If Earth falls now-"
"I know that!" JJ shot back angrily. "But it was the only feasable option. Would you rather have Cybermen running around all over the place?! Didn't you learn anything from the battle on Midnite? Or the historical accounts of Canary Wharf?"
"Commander," Jenny said, comming forward. "You've put this planet, indeed all of us, at grave risk. This ship isn't equipped for battle. The best we can do is bounce everything back with the shields. Without the Rift and the Bad Wolfe-"
He held up a hand to silence her. Indeed, everything was falling apart. Part of him wanted to blame UNIT, having caught him in Washington D.C. after thwarting yet another attempt by the Slitheen to make a profit at the cost of human lives. If they hadn't caught him disposing of the alien creatures, he wouldn't be in this mess.
Then again, they were doing their jobs; he couldn't fault them for that. God how he hated Saturdays. Everything always went south on Saturdays.
"We don't stand a chance against the Time Lords," one of the officers said, breaking the silence. "The Daleks barely managed to-"
"No," Jenny said. "For them, the war is still ongoing. They didn't escape. They're just prolonging the inevitable. And that's something we must never meddle into."
JJ's head rose, and his eyes widened. It was as if everything were falling together in place. He reached into the pocket of his brown greatcoat, the blue one having been thankfully put into the wash shortly after his latest ressurection from the dead. He pulled out his glasses, and put them on. Jenny shook her head. That was one thing she found most annoying about him. His brainy specs.
"I've got it!" he exclaimed.
"Got what?"
He grinned, and it made him look quite insane. "I want a team put onto the Cybermen case. I want another team put onto the Rift case. We need to find out where we ended up sending Gwen and Donna. Jenny, you're on Hub detail. I want you to analyze every scrap of everything that comes in from all fronts. We can't leave the ship out in the open, so you're going to have to keep it hidden in the Hub for a while. I want another team on clean-up, specifically around the Bad Wolfe wreckage."
"We've already got men working on that," she replied.
"Then double it. Find Ianto, and make sure he's alright. Jack will kill me if he's... well... Just make sure he gets medical attention as soon as he's found."
"Yes sir!" a few shouts rose up from the gathered.
"One more thing," he said, looking straight at Jenny with an amused expression. "If we bump into you know who, don't say a word about this."
"Timey-wimey," she started.
"Wibbly-wobbly," he finished for her.
"And what are you going to do?"
"What I do best," he said. "Confront the enemy, stir the pot, gather intelligence, get killed a few times, tortured, then be back down in time for tea."
---
[The Nothing]
Hart looked around. Quin looked around.
Both were dumbfounded, and also out of ammo.
Quin put out his arm to halt his unlikely companion in this ghastly realm. "Could be another trap."
"Don't think so mate," he said. "It doesn't smell like one."
Quin sighed. "Doesn't mean it isn't one."
"Even so... I don't think this is one of your's."
He was right. This wasn't one of his old memories twisted to the Trickster's liking. This was something else, something he hadn't seen before.
Hart left his side, moving to one of the computers and running a quick scan with his manipulator. "No luck. It's a fake."
"Just like everything else," the dispatcher said, tucking the gun into his belt. He didn't bother with the safety. The ammo was spent. It was good only for a club now.
"Is this one of your's then?" he asked. There were a few, quite disturbing occurances in this place of nightmares that he could have lived without seeing. Scenes that belonged inside John's mind alone.
He shook his head. "Nope. Too bland. Not enough-"
"Okay okay. I get it. Don't need to go further with that one."
Hart nodded, continuing his search of the room they had found themselves in.
Quin followed his lead after seeing that the entrance they had blasted into the room had quickly dissapeared. He walked carefully around the work stations. The set up was similar to his old job, working at the call centre. But it lacked that laid back feel and the flimsy dividers between the desks.
This was too clean. Smelled sterile as well.
"Eyecandy... you might want to have a look at this!"
Quin left the stack of papers he'd started going through and joined Hart's side. The pair stood there, staring out the window. Daleks flew through the air. Quin pointed to the ground below. "Cybermen," he said.
Hart gave him a sidelong glance before they heard a man shouting behind them. Quin picked up the familiar sound of JJ's sonic screwdriver. But when he turned around, he was forced to do a double take.
A man stood there, in a suit and a long brown coat. Black glasses, geek chic he'd heard JJ call it once, and a pair of faded trainers.
"What the hell?!" Quin shouted, reaching for his gun.
Hart had his raised. He kept the hand holding it level by crossing his other arm beneath the first. Cybermen marched into the office space. And the strange man didn't look pleased to see them at all.
"Oh shit," Hart said suddenly, looking to Quin.
"Is this-"
"Come on. We've got to get out of here or we're as good as dead," he said, leading the way down a passage. "Keep close eyecandy. This place is about to go down. Hard and fast."
"Can you stop with the sexual innuendos for five seconds?"
"If this is how I'm gonna die, I'd like to be remembered for a good bawdy line."
Quin rolled his eyes, but he kept the distance between him and Hart to a minimum as they searched for a way to escape this ticking time bomb of a nightmare.
---
Jack couldn't keep still. He couldn't rest knowing something awful had happened to his team. He remained in his bed long enough to regain his strength, the whole time wishing it had been a deadly fall. At least then his recovery would have been quicker.
But as soon as he was able, he was up and out of that bed, roaming the halls with a feeling of de-ja-vu. His hand trailing along the smooth wall, feeling beneath his fingers the gentle hum of her. She wasn't as old as what he had become accustomed to. She was newer, younger than her counterpart. She still had a long life, hopefully, ahead of her.
"Officer on deck!" someone shouted when he found himself comming out into a library turned war-room.
Men and women everywhere straightened up, and gave salute. He looked around, realizing it wasn't him. It was the one who came up behind him.
"You should be resting," the girl said.
He turned his head to see her sliding between him and the wall to get around. "At ease soldiers," she said, waving her hand as she made her way to a table. "What do we have, Jenkins?"
"Well, ma'am. The last communications from Commander Harkness indicates that they are not here with hostile intent. Rather, they were using rift energies to cloak their presence in this sector of the galaxy, trying to get around an Imperial Dalek battle fleet without detection."
"So now we're going to have talking trash cans not far behind," she said, picking at some of her hair before nodding. "Alright. What's the status on the Cybermen?"
"All traces of their presence has been taken care of. We've ascribed blame for the destruction to the North Koreans, as per your instructions. Thankfully, the Commander and Jack's stunt have effectively stopped the invasion attempt."
"But what could have led to an invasion? The Cybermen don't tempt fate like that unless they've got a reason."
"Or someone in charge who can alter their prime directives," Jack said, making his way carefully to the table. "What about my team?"
"Mr. Jones is in critical care. We found him shortly after the Commander's departure to meet with the Time Lords."
"And Gwen?" he pressed.
There was silence.
"Answer me damn it!"
Jenny put a hand on his arm. "There are signs of a struggle in the Hub. We've got a team of experts in there, forensic specialists, to try and piece together what happened."
"The secutiry footage?"
"Stops just before the struggle. Something, or someone, didn't want us to see what happened."
"Donna?"
She shook her head. "No. She's-"
"Ma'am!" a female crew member exclaimed, pushing her way between Jack and Jenny, breaking their momentary contact. "Ma'am, we've found the Containment Unit."
Jack watched as Jenny's eyes went wide. "What?!"
"Well, we know where it USED to be. When we tracked it down, it was gone. But there's a homing beacon on the unit."
"Where's it headed?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, ma'am."
"Try me," she replied.
Jack looked over the girl's shoulder, reading quickly through the information before it was moved and placed into Jenny's waiting hand.
"This, all of this, is a trap," he said. "A trap by someone that knows what never happens on a Sunday."
She didn't need to ask what he meant by such a cryptic remark.
"Ripples, Jack. Ripples passing through space and time, across not just one universe, but the entirity of the multiverse. Someone's been planning this for a very long time... And he thinks he's clever... Oh he is clever. But he hadn't counted on a few things."
"Yeah? What's that?"
She smiled. "That things happen that were never meant to happen, and that people exist who were never supposed to exist." She turned her head just slightly, but never took her eyes off of Jack. "Jenkins!" she shouted. "Hail the Commander! We're going to hunt ourselves down a Time Lord! Specifically, a Time Lady."
"What?!"
"The Rani's up to her old tricks again," Jenny said. "I suppose JJ's already pieced that one together. I suspect that, if we find the Rani, we will find the Containment Unit, and Gwen as well."
"What about Ianto?"
She laughed. "He's in critical condition Jack, we can't bring him along. Besides, my medics were trained by the highest authority there is in medicine. He'll be fine, trust me."
"Last time a Time Lord told me to do that," he said solemnly. "I was chained up in a boiler room for a year."
"We're on the same side, Jack Harkness. Don't believe me, call up Martha and ask her yourself. She was there when I was born. She can tell you everything."
---
[The Nothing]
Quin was double over, gasping for air. Hart stood beside him, his back pressed against the wall as he peered around the corner. The world around them kept changing rapidly. Neither of them knew where, or even when they were. Sometimes, Quin would recognize for a brief moment a corridor, or a sign, but as soon as he would attempt to place it, the world would morph into something else, something so human that it had become alien to him.
"I think it's clear," John said, relaxing just a little.
"Good," Quin gasped, rising up to his full height, his chest heaving with the effort to breathe. "I could use a rest."
"No rest for the wicked." John glanced around the corner again. "We need to keep moving."
"A fat lot of good it's done us so far. We're lost."
"Still doesn't mean we should stop."
"This is hopeless. We'll never get out of here," Quin complained, holding his side.
Hart looked at him with eyes that spoke more than just volumes. They exploded speakers with their intensity. "Look. There's a real nasty Time Lord out there that'll stop at nothing to get you back. He's turned over every rock and stone looking for you. Destroyed a few planets along the way. I don't want to suffer his wrath on a dark night just because you wanted to stay lost. Now MOVE!" he shouted, rounding the corner and diving away from sight.
Quin heard gunfire. "Hart!"
"Run, Quincy! And don't look back!"
---
"Why Hart?!"
"He was our man on the inside. After Torchwood fell, we placed him in line straight for the Time Agency. Not much of a stretch, considering he was already on probation for unauthorized time travel." Jenny laughed to herself. "Five years. Though, technically Torchwood fell only 3 years ago. Timey-wimey wibbly wobbly bits, don't you know. But he spent five years in the agency, gathering intel for us."
"The Galactic Conglomerate didn't care too much for the Archives," an authoritative voice said from the corridor. "Especially since Time Lords were involved. They claimed we were plotting to take control, like our ancestors had done, and were using Torchwood as a cover. The fools," he said, shucking off his coat and comming straight for the central console. He looked worn, run down, but he kept his head up, his expression grave. "Have we got a lock on the Containment Unit yet?"
"It's fading in and out sir, but we've managed to get a trajectory."
"What's in that direction, corporal?"
"Gallifrey."
There was silence in the newer model Tardis control room. Jack could hear his own heartbeat. His breathing, and then a scream.
The next few seconds felt as if time slowed. Jenny's arms went swinging in different directions, her voice strong and clear as she gave the orders. Jack turned to the commander, who stood with his back to the chaos. From this angle, Jack could see the expression on his face as he stared down wearily at the controls. It betrayed the slight note of exhaustion in his voice previously. It was like steel.
"Put me where I can help," Jack said.
He didn't react, not right away. The cogs in his head were cranking, slowly and steadily as he formed a plan of action. Then, he nodded. "Right!" he shouted, seeming to pull strength from a hidden reserve. "Jack, old boy, you're going to act a bait. Jenny! You handle the missing persons. We've got more than one case going on here at the moment."
"I can't spare anyone else, commander."
He grinned, and it was his manic, joyful grin that caught Jack by surprise. "Exactly. Has anyone established contact with the T-Type 3?! We're going to need someone to do the legwork!"
"No sir."
"Then get on it. The Type-2 is going after Donna and Gwen. I'll remain here with Jack and do what I can to repair the Hub. I'll also work on the Cybermen case as best I can until we locate the Type-3."
"This doesn't have anything to do with that Ianto Jones, does it?" Jenny asked, crossing her arms over her chest with a stern look.
JJ laughed, as if he found the notion absurd. "No, dear Time Lady," he said. "I'm merely going to investigate what went wrong with the Rift, and document my findings. Repair the damage we've caused here, and, if I'm lucky, bribe Jack into fixing my ship for me." He chuckled, standing up straight and looked over to one of the crewmen. "Though, I am going to need a little help from Summerfield to get the Torchwood defenses back on line while Jack looks after his coffee boy."
"Hey!" Jack butt in. "Do I look like a nurse and a mechanic?"
"Not really, no," JJ replied with a wink and a grin. "What are we all standing around for! Allons-y! Let's get to work!"
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