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Someone was kissing him. That kiss, oh, he knew that kiss. But it couldn't be, not unless time had already been restored. Must be a hallucination or dream... still, might as well enjoy it while it lasted. He reached out to pull the other closer - he found he could move freely, definitely a dream then - and tangled his fingers in short, soft hair.
"Yan," he breathed, "Oh, Ianto..."
Jack kept his eyes tightly closed, his lips close to his lover's, afraid of breaking the dream if he looked or moved too quickly. It would end far too soon anyway, he knew. For now it seemed so real, his subconscious had even filled in the smell of Ianto, almost perfectly.
His hand slid down Ianto's neck, slowly, coming to rest on his chest, and Jack took a moment to savor the feel of his heartbeat.
Wait... no, that wasn't right. A double heartbeat? The Doctor? But the Doctor never kissed him like this, only Ianto...
Confusion overrode Jack's resolve to keep his eyes closed and hold on to the dream. He regretted it immediately as he realized he hadn't been dreaming as deeply as he thought. Horror swept over him and he pulled away.
"What the HELL -"
"It's me, Jack, it's me... I'm sorry Jack, the timeline, it's fixed, I can't change it. I'm so sorry..."
Jack scrambled to his feet, deeply disturbed and quickly becoming enraged.
The Master let him go, swiftly standing and stepping back, fumbling with something in his pocket. Jack glared, temper flaring as he recovered from what was a close competitor for the nastiest shock of his life. He started forward, fists clenched, only to stop short as a force field flickered to life just in front of his nose.
"What kind of sick game are you playing?" He snarled the words, almost but not quite ready to throw himself at the force field, ineffectiveness and likely resulting death be damned.
The expression on the Master's face was unreadable - or maybe, truthfully, Jack didn't want to think about what it meant.
"Oh, Jack. I think you already know, somewhere in the back of your mind, where you hide the things you don't want to admit to yourself. Didn't the similarity even cross your mind when you heard the name I'd taken? When you knew me as Yana?" He emphasized the first syllable, and Jack barely avoided visibly flinching. The intended implication was suddenly crystal clear, and all the more upsetting in light of his dream.
"You're not him," he gritted out, still glaring, the hot rage settling into something much deeper and possibly far more dangerous. "You're nothing like him."
"I knew you wouldn't believe me. It does seem rather fantastical, doesn't it? Rather... impossible? But your life is impossible, Jack. You should know better than to expect only the obvious. Still, I did figure I'd have to have to offer you proof."
He smirked slightly, pointing to one side. Jack followed the gesture with his eyes to a steaming mug on the nearest flat surface, just on Jack's side of the force field.
He eyed the mug with suspicion, considering likely outcomes. Poison? Maybe, but that would make little difference to him in the long run. Drugs? More likely, but again would do the Master little real benefit. He had no useful information to be extracted via truth serum... Anyway, if he refused the Master could easily arrange to have a drug or poison administered by force. Seeing little in the way of options unless he simply wanted to be stubborn, Jack took the mug and raised it to his lips.
One sip told him everything he needed to know, and the mug smashed to the floor as he nearly collapsed with shock, his brain going into overdrive trying to find some other explanation, anything but the obvious.
"Believe me now, Jack?"
Jack struggled to think, to make some sort of sense of this. The Master must have captured Ianto... but no, Ianto was so clever. He'd have figured out a way to ruin anything the Master would have tried. There was no way he would - not just like --
"Then why," Jack whispered, finally unable to deny the evidence. "Why are you doing this?"
"Oh, Jack..." The Master switched off the force field and stepped close. "For all your long life you've learned so little of time. It's not so easily shaped to one's liking. But then I can't blame you really, even the Time Lords, they see more than most but they still don't understand, not really. The Doctor called you a fixed point, you know what that means... you know there are similar points, moments that can't be altered, bits of history that can never be changed. But you, you're so much more than a moment. So much more than just a point. Your whole life is a fixed line."
"And you had to go and tell me, didn't you?" The Master was ranting now, his voice getting louder as he continued, "stupid Jack, even the Doctor would know better than that, would know that even if your life weren't fixed, THAT would have sealed the loop! You told me how I hurt you, and now I have no choice... Oh, Jack, you told me everything..." His voice cracked and he trailed off, staring at the wall unhappily, muttering about choices and fixed lines.
Jack grabbed on to one thought out of the mad whirl in his head and held on to it tightly. "If I... if I told you, then I WILL tell you, right? I'll see you -- I'll see Ianto again, this will end somehow... so you can end it, then!"
"No, not me. You have to end this, Jack. There's never been another way. It's not just the what that's fixed, the when and who and how.... nothing can change. Don't you see, Jack, nothing can ever change!" Here was the unhinged rambling again, "I looked into the Time Vortex as a child, and I saw the secret of it, the secret they all miss... I saw my life in flashes, and I saw my only choice, the only choice I've ever had... villain or madman." He looked intently into Jack's eyes, madness and torment laid bare for a moment before he looked away. "I'm not the hero of this story."
He stepped back and spread his hands, laughing bitterly. "So here I am, a madman."
Jack yawned, struggling against the gathering fog in his brain. He wished he hadn't dropped that coffee. So hard to think... "You... telling me... now I know, won't tell you... I can do something, change this..."
The Master smiled sadly. "No, you can't. You won't. I had to take precautions, you see, hand to make sure... You'll forget this, Jack. You're already forgetting."
A moment of clarity, then: "Retcon."
"Yes."
Jack staggered a little, and the Master stepped close to save him from a fall. The mad Time Lord helped ease him to the ground. "Sleep, Jack. Dream of Ianto." He leaned down to kiss Jack softly one last time as the immortal's body relaxed, succumbing to the drug. He laid Jack gently on the floor, eyes and fingertips lingering on his face for a moment before he stood and turned to leave.
Jack would wake with no memory of this, the timeline would be maintained, as it always must be. But just for a moment, the drumming in his head had quieted.
Just on the other side of the door he paused, struck by a memory and a realization -- I came back for you -- there could be no stolen moment.