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aviv_b_artworkTITLE: Chapter 78 - Victory
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 78- G/PG for violence
CHARACTERS:: Ianto, Aaron, King William, Jack, The Doctor, The Master,
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 2510
SUMMARY: The Toclafane are defeated, but the price of victory is very, very high
Title is from: Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival. Winston Churchill
Ianto's Journey begins here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/1972.html
All Chapter are linked.
Jack had almost captured and killed the Master at his base hidden behind Europa. But the Doctor was there and once again his interference allowed the Master to escape. Leaving the Toclafanes to do his bidding, the Master having built a new Tardis, disappeared through the time/space continuum. Jack was furious. He turned on the Doctor.
“Damn you. Damn you to hell,” Jack spit out. “There may be upwards of 100 million casualties on Earth if the Toclafane succeed and still you let him escape. This time I’m ending it.”
“Jack, don’t do this,” the ginger-haired Doctor begged as he put a hand on Jack’s shoulder.
“Oh no, not this time Doctor. He’s irredeemably evil and I’m not going to stop until I find him and kill him.” Jack pushed the Doctor away and stepped into the Tardis. The Doctor followed him inside.
“She won’t work for you, Jack. She’ll never allow it.”
Jack and went and stood by a side wall in the control room. He put his hand on a wall and spoke softly. “I’ll accept your judgment, Sweetheart. Do we let him kill hundreds of millions of humans or do we eliminate him once and for all?”
To the Doctor’s surprise, the Tardis began to make the telltale sounds of activation.
“No, no, no,” the Doctor begged. “You really don’t want to listen to him,” he admonished the Tardis. But Jack, having gained his immortality through the vortex in the heart of the Tardis, was seen by her as having priority even over the Doctor’s wishes.
“Let’s go get him,” he whispered sounding more like a lover than a fighter to the Tardis.
***
The King and Ianto hurried on. While they heard no other sounds in the tunnel, they had no way of knowing whether the Toclafane would succeed in finding their way down to the tube lines and tracking them down. It took several more hours for them to cross under the Thames and approach the East Putney Station. As they stood on the walkway just before the station, Ianto pulled his TASER out and crept out to inspect whether the platform was empty. He had done this at each of the other stations they passed through without incident except at Earl’s Court, where a rat the size of a small dog scurried in front of Ianto almost giving him a heart attack.
He motioned to the King that it was safe to come onto the platform. Ianto closed his eyes to envision the plans of the secret room built as part of the station. He smiled when he saw a small utility closet over on the back wall of the station. Within a few moments he had it open to reveal a small sink, a mop and a bucket.
“Lovely, Ianto. Is this where we’re supposed to stay?” The King was exhausted and couldn’t help expressing a little frustration and irritation.
Ianto held up a finger in front of his lips to signal for quiet. He motioned for the King to shine both torches into the closet to illuminate the space as much as possible. Ianto knew this was the place but where was the room? He motioned for one of the torches and shined it under the sink. ‘Got it’, he thought. As expected there were cold and hot water shut off valves in the wall but also a small knob that seemed to serve no purpose. Reaching down Ianto turned the knob and a side wall in the closet slid open.
‘After you, Your Majesty,’ Ianto said bowing dramatically.
William rolled his eyes. Once again the two men entered a dark space barely illuminated by their torches. Ianto felt around and felt an identical knob just next to the doorway. As the door slid shut the room became filled with light.
The King gasped. The room was large almost ten meters square. It was set up much like a small flat with two small sofas at one end, a table and six chairs in the middle, two tall metal storage cabinets against the wall behind the table, and a pile of collapsible camp beds in the far corner.
“Well, I must say this is quite a little set up here. Who maintains it?”
‘Jack personally sees to its maintenance. Only he and the head of UNIT London know of its location.’ Ianto walked over to the metal cabinets and opened one revealing several hundred of MREs. Another cabinet was filled with liters of bottled water.
“Well I don’t know about you, but I’m ravenous,” the King said grabbing one of the foil packets.” He hesitated for a moment realizing that something important was missing. “Uh, Ok, where’s the…”
Ianto smiled and opened a small door on the far wall of the space to reveal a chemical toilet and a small sink.
“All the comforts of home.”
‘Yeah? Standards must be slipped at the palace.’
The two men ate several MREs each. Ianto could tell that William thought they tasted horrible (and they did) but it was food and with that and water they could survive.
“So how long will we be here?”
‘Hard to say. We have enough food for close to a month but we should probably ration it a bit in case we have to be here longer.’
The King was shocked that they might have to remain in the room for that long a period of time. “Oh come on, really?”
Ianto shrugged. ‘I hope its not that long but only Jack or General Hagston can open the door from the outside. We can open it from the inside, but I don’t think we should unless we can’t hold out any longer.’
Ianto searched around the room finally spotting a small chest by the camp beds. Rifling through the contents he found what he was looking for. He held up a phone charger as well as a battery charger and some fresh batteries. ‘Ok, time to plug my voice in; lets change out these batteries and get them charging.’
It was 22:00 hours by the time they ate, cleaned up a bit and set up two camp beds.
'Why don’t you see if you can get some rest? I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep tonight.'
The King looked over at Ianto and saw that he looked utterly exhausted. He had been so focused on getting to this destination, that he had forgotten just how terrible a day it had been for Ianto.
“Ianto, was the man who stayed behind your Aaron?”
Ianto nodded his eyes filling with tears.
William was at a loss for words. What did you say to someone who left their partner behind in order to save you? The King could only think of one thing. “I’m so sorry Ianto. Truly I am. Aaron’s a hero and I’ll make sure that no one ever forgets what he did.”
Ianto nodded as a few tears spilled down his cheeks. He lowered the light and the two men laid on their camp beds in silence. Finally, Ianto heard William’s breathing even out. Ianto got up quietly and went into the small bathroom, closed the door, sat down on the commode and had a good cry.
***
Jack and the Doctor chased the Master across time and space for over a millennium. They would almost catch up with him and he’d dart away again. It was almost as if he were taunting them, daring them to catch him. Eventually a problem with the Master’s Tardis allowed Jack to corner him on one of the outer moons of Jantorus Minor. The Doctor tried once again to change Jack’s mind about destroying the Master.
“Jack, please don’t do this. He’s the only one like me left. We’re the last of the Time Lords. I’ll be alone in the universe if you kill him.”
“Don’t start,” Jack snarled. They had had this same argument thousands of times in the eons that they chased the Master. He slammed out of the Tardis ready to confront the evil Time Lord.
The Doctor sighed and went to follow him only to find that the Tardis had locked him inside. “You let me out of here right now, do you hear me?” the Doctor scolded. The Tardis began to play music which as the Doctor knew was the Tardis’ way of ignoring him. He fumed and kicked at the door a few times but he knew that she wasn’t letting him out.
***
Three days. Three days and they had heard nothing from the outside world. They had food and water but not much to keep themselves occupied. They were still in the same clothes which were getting a bit ripe. They had found a deck of cards but William’s repertoire of cards was limited to gin rummy. After several dozens of hands, they both grew bored.
“Where’s your Jack then?” Ianto shrugged. “I’m bloody well sick of this…I’m going out to see what’s going on,” William declared. Ianto shook his head ‘no.’ “What? I’m the King; I don’t have to listen to you.”
Ianto was afraid this might happen. As King, William was used to having his every whim catered to. But that couldn’t be the case at present.
Ianto got up stood in front of the door. He switched his TASER on.
“You wouldn’t dare.” Ianto shrugged and nodded ‘yes.’
“You little bastard, you’d never have the nerve,” the King said as he moved toward the door. As he went to reach behind Ianto to activate the knob he was standing in front of, Ianto tasered him.
The King yelped and fell to the ground. Ianto didn’t move from the door. He had turned the TASER on the lowest possible setting knowing the King wouldn't be harmed. The King sat up and glared at him, and then burst into laughter.
“You have more balls than I gave you credit for, Ianto. That really did sting a bit.” Ianto didn’t move from the door. “Ok, see, moving away from the door, nothing to worry about.”
Actually Ianto wasn’t worried at all. The King didn’t know that there was a second switch behind the cabinets that had to be turned as well before the door would open. He just wanted to make sure that William knew that he wasn’t going to be able to go anywhere unless Ianto decided they had to leave.
***
Jack walked into a nondescript cinder block building where he knew the Master was waiting for him.
“Oh look, it’s the Freak,” the Master laughed. “I see you’ve kept my brother Time Lord in his Tardis so I can’t beg him for mercy like I did the last time. Stupid one, he is. He always was you know. Far too sentimental to be effective, always trying to see the good in people. Don’t think he’ll be very fond of you after this.”
Jack walked nearer to the Master until they were within a few meters of each other. “The smell of you is unnatural,” the Master said making a face. “You are WRONG, totally wrong.” Jack said nothing. “So are you going to try to shoot me with that pathetic 20th Century Earth weapon you always carry with you?”
“I come unarmed,” Jack said.
“Are you going to beg me to spare Earth? How do you think you can defeat me? You have no weapons, no army, no one to help you. All I have to do is kill you and walk away. You can chase me for another thousand years and what difference will it make?"
Jack stood silent facing the Master.
The Master laughed. “Oh Jack, I don’t even have to stop you. As you can see my dear Doctor is here to save the day.” Jack turned his head to see the Doctor pointing his sonic screwdriver at him. Jack turned back glaring at the Master.
“Silly freak,” the Master gloated. I’m going to enjoy watching the Doctor kill you.”
“Jack,” the Doctor cried. “Please don’t make me kill you. I know you’ll come back but you won’t solve anything this way.” Jack shook his head ‘no.’ The Doctor kept his screwdriver aimed at Jack.
“It’s a stalemate,” the Master laughed. Jack reached into the pocket of his greatcoat as if to remove a weapon. The Doctor fired his sonic screwdriver at Jack. At the exact moment, Jack smiled. The Master screamed, ‘NO!”
***
As the King slept the sixth night following the invasion, Ianto once again sat guard. He had slept a little during the day but he was beginning to worry that maybe Jack’s plan had gone awry. He smiled to himself when he remembered how late Jack was in returning the last time he had left with the Doctor. He came back three years too late which turned into a lifetime too late. Ianto sighed.
He thought about his life with Aaron. Almost thirty years of unwavering love and devotion. Aaron had been his rock, his strength, his everything. He couldn’t fathom how he was going to go on without him.
And so brave. So very brave. Ianto now knew that Aaron went with him intending to sacrifice his life if necessary. As he and the King had run down the tunnels Aaron had shut the entrance door and leaned against it. The troops surrounding the palace fought furiously to protect their King and it took almost two hours for the Toclafane to break through the last defenses. Like bloodhounds, a dozen quickly tracked the King to the Nash Gallery. Blasting through the door they saw one man at the far end of the room. The King wasn’t there, but they could sense that he had been there not long before.
They surrounded Aaron shooting a few laser blasts around him. ”Where is the King?” they demanded. Aaron just smiled and raised his TASER. In a second Aaron’s arm had been shot off. It was at this moment that Ianto, feeling the injury to Aaron, had fallen to his knees.
“Where is the King? We will let you live if you tell us where he is.”
‘Ianto,’ Aaron pushed out, ‘I love you Cariad, don’t be sad, I’ve had the most wonderful life with you. It’s the end, break the bond…now.’ He felt Ianto resist for just a moment and then release him.
Aaron smiled and removed a grenade from his pocket. Pulling the pin out with his teeth he held it against his chest. Four seconds later the grenade exploded its shrapnel killing Aaron, destroying the Toclafane and blowing down the wall behind him sealing the entry to the passageway.
***
The Master screamed but it was too late. The blast from the sonic screwdriver hit Jack squarely in the back. The Doctor had set the force only to stun but he didn’t know that Jack had anticipated exactly what would happen. The electromagnetic charge of the screwdriver ignited the bomb implanted inside of Jack, blowing him and the Master to pieces.
Chapter 79 here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/46347.html
