Chapter Text
“Run!”
Ianto Jones, from his position crouched on the dirty floor behind his best friend Rose, barely had time to register the Time Lord running towards them, or the blue glow of a silver weapon pointed towards said Time Lord, before a hand on his shoulder pulled him sharply upwards and successfully got him standing flat on his feet. Ianto sprung into motion, his legs kicking out to chase after a billowing RAF coat and the sprinting man that it belonged to. He grabbed Rose’s hand, pulling her along with them as they picked up pace. Confident that she would keep him on track, Ianto turned to look back at the Doctor and saw him racing to catch up. Behind, there was a gaggle of guards clad in black armour, each holding a glowing blue gun in their arms. The closest to them was beginning to fall behind as the Doctor peeled away with his quick, gangly legs.
The blue light in the centre of the nearest gun began to intensify, getting whiter and whiter until it started to hum with energy. In a split second, Ianto found an extra burst of energy and reached out to grab a fistful of Jack’s coat, pulling him sharply into the wall on their left. Rose saw his movement, and was close enough to follow suit and yank the Doctor to the wall with her. No sooner had they shifted to the left, a quick pulse of energy shot from the gun and whizzed past the hairs on Ianto’s head, scorching the tips.
There wasn’t time to pause. Jack pointed to a corridor on the right, diving for the safety it provided. The blue shots rained across the space they had just vacated.
“No staircases that way, then?” Ianto asked breathlessly as they made their way as quickly as possible across the corridor, skidding to the right as they found a new turning. Behind him, Ianto could hear the armoured guards' feet slapping the ground heavily. They had to turn wherever possible to avoid getting caught in crossfire.
“None. Just a lump of security guards,” the Doctor said, sounding less like he was running for his life and more like he was jogging in the park on a Sunday morning in Splott. “They didn’t take kindly to an intruder. Which is hardly surprising, seeing as we’re breaking into a top security prison.”
“For good reason,” Rose pointed out, then caught sight of the shadow of a guard turning the corner behind them. “Turn left!”
They peeled off to the left, finding themselves in a twisted corridor with barred doors on both sides. Judging by the variety of noises coming from them, Ianto supposed these must be keeping the prisoners - though, judging by the small width of the cells, he suspected they were likely holding cells rather than permanent fixtures. (He didn’t particularly fancy stopping to find out.)
From the front of the line, Jack came to a dramatic halt. Ianto hit him hard as his legs carried him forwards with momentum, and let out a loud “oof.” He stumbled to a standstill.
“Woah, careful there handsome,” Jack spoke, peeling the Welshman away from where he was almost fully embracing his back. “Time and a place.”
He grinned cheekily at Ianto, then jumped into motion again, sprinting through a doorway labelled ‘storage’. The room they found themselves in was dark and musky, cramped with boxes and displays of various items that Ianto had no idea the purpose of.
“There’s a door at the other end of this room,” the Doctor shouted, pointing to the only beam of light filtering through a window.
“Come on, let’s go!” Rose shouted, moving to take the lead whilst the others paused for a second to catch their breath. Before his feet had a chance to kid themselves into thinking there would be a reprieve, Ianto got them moving again. His suit felt tight against his body, and he was very much regretting not leaving his waistcoat and tie (at least) back on the Tardis. As it was, all he could do was reach up and pull at his tie to try to loosen the strain on his throat, his fingers fumbling too much to attempt to undo any buttons.
They raced past a collection of non-lethal weapons, only pausing when Rose threw out her hands.
“Baton?” She asked, picking up a black baton and offering it to the other three.
“Already have my gun,” Ianto pointed out.
“I refuse to use a weapon!” the Doctor said, looking horrified.
Rose rolled her eyes and turned to look at Jack. He shook his head. “I’ve already grabbed a gun. But I’ll take some handcuffs.”
“What for? We’re not exactly here to arrest someone,” the Doctor asked.
Jack grinned. “Oh, no. They’re for recreational use, once we get out of here - right, Ianto?”
His leer was interrupted by a loud crash from outside. Their eyes met for a second, and then the four of them were on the move once more.
Their feet thundered through the exit of the storage room, hitting a metal grating in a new, colder corridor which blinked with bright lights. Their shortcut through the previous room seemed to have confused the guards, as there were none in sight down the long new corridor. From the back of the group, Ianto pulled metal cabinets down from the side of the hallway, ensuring that anybody who followed them would be slowed down.
“Stairs!” Rose shouted, her grin infectious through her voice as it carried across the corridor. They began to climb the spiral of stairs. Ianto stuck his head out in the middle to see how far they had to go before they reached floor five, but instead locked eyes with the glaring, furious face of a guard. He pulled his head back. There were still a few levels between them and the prison workers.
“Guards above!” he shouted to his friends, catching up to them despite his protesting calf muscles. He heard Rose groan.
“How far?” the Doctor asked him.
“A few levels. We can make it to the second floor, I’m sure, but the third may be pushing it.”
He nodded. “Then we leave on the third.”
Ianto rolled his eyes. At least he hadn't suggested they could reach the fourth floor. He had no doubts that the Doctor would’ve pushed them to get to the highest floor possible before they left the stairs, so Ianto had made sure to underestimate. Unlike the maniac who claimed to be in charge, he didn’t have a death wish.
“Come on!” Rose shouted, holding the door to the third floor open for her companions to race through. They raced past her, not knowing where they were headed other than away from the guards who were hot on their tails. Something small but loud was thrown at them, rolling and clanging off the floor as it settled just behind where they were running. Between the hissing noise it was making and the sequential beeps, the group realised what it was seconds before it started to whine loudly.
“In here!” the Doctor shouted in a panic, shoving himself through a door. His three friends hurried through, Ianto and Jack at the back being thrown suddenly forwards as a pulse of energy shot out of the object as it exploded. Rose caught hold of them before they could fall over, pulling them up again to run back out and into the corridor when she realised the room they were in was a dead end.
They had almost made it to the turn in the corridor when the shooting started again. Shots whizzed past them, leaving scorch marks where they hit the wall. Suddenly Ianto pitched forwards and cried out in pain. Heat blossomed from his ankle, causing his leg to give out as he tried to take another step on his right foot, and he tumbled to the ground. His friends whipped around, pausing in their tracks.
“Ianto!” Jack exclaimed, his face frozen in alarm. Jack reached forwards, grabbing Ianto under the armpits and lifting him back up on his feet. The shots continued to fire, and Jack dragged him past the turn in the corridor and into cover. Ianto leaned against the wall, gingerly trying to put a tiny bit of his weight on his injured leg, but a flare of pain nearly whitened his vision. He wobbled, and reached back out to hold Jack’s shoulder in support.
“Ianto! Oh, God,” Rose said, looking down at his leg. Ianto braced himself as he too looked downwards, trying to keep himself from throwing up as he saw his skin blackened and scorched with red, bubbling blisters that spread across his wound. He steeled his gaze and looked back up.
“We need to keep moving.”
“You can’t walk,” the Doctor pointed out.
“Then leave without me. Go to floor five and find cell one hundred and nine,” he said resolutely.
The Doctor wavered, but it was Jack that spoke next. “Absolutely not. We’re not leaving you behind.”
Ianto felt an arm snake around his waist and moved his own arm to more comfortably sit on top of Jack’s shoulders. The ex-Time Agent shouted at the Doctor and Rose to keep going, and began to hobble his way forwards. Ianto bit his lip to stop himself from crying out every time his leg was jostled. He was surprised by how quickly Jack was moving them, but even as they moved across the corridor he could hear the feet behind him getting closer. Despite this, the pain in his ankle was ever so slightly beginning to ebb away, which could be due to the adrenaline racing through him - or, perhaps due to something else entirely, which he had absolutely no time to think about at all in the current situation.
Narrowly escaping any other injuries, they stepped through a door into a wide chamber. It was dark as they began to make their way over to the other end. Suddenly the lights turned on in the room. The exit they were running towards was blocked by guards. Ianto turned his head around to look behind him at the entrance they had come in from, which was now also blocked by the guards that had been chasing close behind them.
“We’re trapped,” he alerted his friends, carefully coming to a stop in the center of the room.
“Hands up!” one of the guards shouted, pointing his weapon directly at them. The other guards followed suit, moving further into the room so that they encircled the four people trying to break into their prison. Ianto looked at the Doctor, seeing his eyes flicker as he searched for an escape. Judging by the way they dimmed and his hands began to move above his head, he couldn’t find one.
Slowly, the others put their own hands up, Ianto leaving one on Jack’s back for support as he felt his ankle dully throb still. Everything went silent, and all he could hear was the sound of their own out-of-breath panting and guns cocking. He turned to keep an eye on the guards closest to him, as he mumbled:
“Why did we agree to do this, again?”
Three hours earlier
It wasn’t like Ianto was purposefully ignoring Jack...
More like, he was avoiding the inevitable questions about Satellite Five that Jack would ask him.
The battle at Satellite Five hung deeply yet heavily in Ianto's mind. It was as if the memories and thoughts he didn’t yet want to think about or confront lay guarded by a cover in his brain; as if Ianto could pretend not to think about them and keep them at bay. Whilst he busied himself about the small Tardis kitchen, or lost his mind in a book from the plethora of titles in the library, his brain could keep him happy and complacent. The second he stopped and actually thought , or locked eyes with the nervous, ever-questioning look on Jack’s face, he was transported back to the satellite and made to think about the Dalek coming towards him, and-
This was why Ianto found himself very pleased to be distracted by a warning noise coming from the Tardis console.
“It’s mauve!” the Doctor shouted, racing around to reach the screen and figure out what was going on.
“Mauve?” Rose asked, popping her head into the room as she walked over to join them. Jack followed close behind her, moving to stand in between the Doctor and Ianto. Rose put her head on the Doctor’s shoulder. “No, wait- mauve. The universally recognised colour for danger.”
“I’m feeling a sense of déjà vu,” Ianto muttered, moving to the Doctor’s other side so he too could see the screen. There was a flashing warning sign, and below it a loading bar which was progressing slowly.
“Unlike last time, this warning has sent us a message,” the Doctor explained. “The Tardis is decrypting it as we speak.”
“I’m assuming the ‘last time’ was me?” Jack asked, putting a hand on Ianto’s shoulder that the Welshman couldn’t bring himself to shrug off. After all, there was a distraction on the screen which prevented thoughts from bubbling to the surface of his mind.
“Yup,” Rose answered Jack. “You’re not playing a joke on us, right?”
He let out a laugh. “Now, why would I want to do that?”
“No idea,” Ianto quipped sarcastically. “You’ve never been particularly funny before this point.”
“Hey!” Jack said, as Ianto heard rather than saw the pout he knew was on his face.
The Doctor shushed them, pointing at the screen which was now flashing white as the loading bar reached its limit. For a second it went blank, but then a few lines of text appeared.
STORMCAGE, FLOOR 5, CELL 109
COME FIND ME, SWEETIE XX
The Doctor read the message out loud, frowning at the words. Ianto paused, digesting the message.
“What’s a Stormcage?” he asked.
“It’s one of the highest security prisons in the whole of the galaxy,” Jack explained. “Who’s contacting you from there, Doctor?”
“I don’t know…” the Time Lord murmured, flicking a switch and typing on the console’s keyboard. Ianto had never noticed the Doctor use the keyboard before, wondering if it was another slight change that had come with this new version of the Doctor. He had only just gotten used to the absence of milk and addition of copious amounts of sugar in his new coffee order.
“Can you track the signal?” Ianto questioned.
“Trying to,” the Doctor called back, running to the other side of the console as he pressed a variety of buttons. He rejoined them a few seconds later, pulling the screen closer to examine the result. His face didn’t change, however, and he moved back towards the other side of the console as if to recalibrate it. Ianto had a split second to read the number ‘5149’ followed by a string of random text before it blinked off once more. He felt the hand on his shoulder stiffen, and then Jack let go of him altogether.
“Doctor,” Jack said very slowly. Ianto turned to look at him, recognising the voice as a hint towards Jack being specifically worried about something. “What did that screen just say?”
“Some year in the fifty-second century,” the Doctor unhelpfully replied. He appeared to be more focused on his console than the conversation. “The Tardis is struggling to translate the text afterwards.”
“Get the screen back,” Jack ordered. The three others in the room stopped and stared at his serious, set face.
“Why?” the Doctor challenged, standing up straight.
“Because I said so. Do it.”
They stared at each other for another thirty seconds, as if waiting for the other to break first. Eventually, the Doctor appeared to sense something in Jack’s expression, because he gave in and pulled up the same message again.
Jack stared intensely at the text. He let out a soft gasp and turned back to face the others. “That message came from my Vortex Manipulator.”
Their jaws dropped. Rose let out a faint laugh. “You’re joking. Tell me this actually is one of your jokes.”
Jack shook his head. “No. I recognise the transfer signature,” he said seriously, pressing a button on the Vortex Manipulator on his arm as he held it up to scan the screen.
“How is that possible?” the Doctor demanded, rounding on him. “I thought I disabled the time travelling functions on it.”
“No idea, but it matches for sure,” Jack said, looking down at the readings on his wrist strap. “I’ve worked out the exact date here.”
“Did you send the message?”
Jack laughed, though his smile didn’t reach his cheeks. “When have you ever known me to use the word ‘sweetie’? Or end my messages with kisses?”
“He has a point,” Ianto agreed. “Can you feed the time signature back into the Tardis?”
Jack grinned at him. “You bet.”
“Hold on, hold on,” the Doctor interrupted with a frown. “Now that we know it’s from your Vortex Manipulator, that changes things. We can’t be too careful. What if it really is you sending the message?”
“It isn’t. I’ll promise you right now that I’ll never send you that message in my future.”
“That won’t stop you. Words are meaningless when it comes to predicting the future,” the Doctor said ominously.
“Look, if we go there we’re gonna find one of two scenarios. One: it is me, and I need your help getting out of jail. You can keep me away from my future self and find out whether or not I deserve letting out.”
“And two?” Rose asked.
“Two: it’s not me, and a device which can meddle with the fabric of time is in the hands of someone who shouldn’t ever be anywhere near something that powerful.”
There was a silence as everybody in the room considered his words. After a few moments of thought, Ianto broke first. “I think we should follow the signal.”
“I agree,” Rose added.
The three of them stared at the Time Lord in front of them. “Please, Doctor,” Jack begged.
The Doctor wavered, and finally sagged his shoulders. “Send the coordinates to the Tardis, then. We have a prison to break into.”
Three hours later
After thirty seconds of silence while the intruders stared at the multitude of guns pointed towards them, Ianto felt Jack suddenly move into action. Jack pointed his arm at the ceiling, and then with a loud bang a shot rang out, hitting the light above and casting the room once more into darkness.
“Scatter!” Jack shouted, and all four of them dropped to the ground as blue pulses of energy shot out of the guns, hitting each other in the middle of the room and shooting sparks above their head. Then there was darkness once more, the noises of guns and barks of orders coming from the soldiers around them. Trying to remember the direction where there had been the least guards, Ianto grabbed the closest arm and pulled it with him towards the edge of the room. He held hands with a small, soft hand and assumed he had pulled Rose away. Her grip tightened, and they barged past a heavy body.
Pain from his ankle was still shooting through him, but he could run on his leg without collapsing now, which was definitely an improvement from five minutes earlier. It must've been from the adrenaline. His free arm fumbled around as it hit the wall, and he moved quickly along the edge of the room, trailing his arm out to feel for a doorway. As soon as he reached it, he slipped as quickly and carefully through it as he possibly could, blinking his eyes to adjust to the sudden light outside.
“Quick!” Rose shouted, emerging behind him. She pulled them down the corridor, until she could drag Ianto with her behind a tall metal storage unit. They held their breath as the guards hurried out of the room.
For a second, Ianto was absolutely certain that the guards were going to see them. He caught a glimpse of movement and then a formation of five passed next to them, moving quickly down the hallway. None of them gave the storage unit a second glance, and after the noises of their feet marching had fallen away, they let themselves out of their hiding place.
“Now, that was a close one,” Rose said, pausing with her hands on her knees to catch her breath. Ianto agreed, brushing his crumpled suit down to force the wrinkles out of the material.
“Right. Stairs?”
Rose nodded in agreement. “Let’s not waste time finding the others. We can find cell one-oh-nine ourselves and get out of this place.”
“Agreed.”
They moved stealthily across the floor they were on, pausing at the end of each corridor to check for movement before they continued onwards. They passed a window to a dark room. Ianto jolted in horror as he saw the Doctor, cuffs on his wrists as a tall guard kept a strong hand on the scruff of his neck. Rose paused as she too caught sight of the situation. She turned to look questioningly at Ianto, who shook his head back.
“No time. We can come back for him later,” he decided, moving forwards again.
“But he could be in danger!”
Ianto shot her what he hoped was a reassuring glance. “He’s the Doctor - he’s always in danger.”
“And if that was Jack?” she challenged. Ianto fixed her a wry grin.
“Then I’d laugh and leave him to the guard’s mercy,” he said, reaching for her hand to both drag her forwards and reassure her. He squeezed her palm in his own. “They’ll both be fine, I promise. It’s the guards I’m more worried for.”
She grinned back at him, accepting his point, and pressed on. When they reached the staircase for the second time, Ianto was relieved to see it devoid of guards. Ignoring the complaints from his ankle, he raced up the stairs two at a time, letting go of Rose’s hand to instead grab the handrail to help propel him upwards. They made it to the fifth floor in less than ten seconds, the four lengths of stairs between the third floor and their destination proving no opponent against their determination to find out who had contacted the Tardis.
As they entered the new floor, Ianto allowed himself to consider what would happen if they opened the doors to the cell and were faced with an older version of Jack. It could either be a version of him from before they met at Torchwood Three, or…
No, wait. Torchwood Three didn’t exist. For whatever reason, when they had visited Cardiff there had been no sight of the hidden base, and if that wasn’t confusing Ianto then nothing else ever would. And yet, when he had stormed into Van Statten’s base and used his Torchwood credentials to gain access, he hadn’t had any qualms about the existence of Torchwood Three. Sure, he hadn’t been able to access the records of agents, but there had still been a database for him to try to hack into. His head swam and he shook it. That was beside the point. If they met a future version of Jack, no matter which of the four of them saw him it would still be a violation of the laws of time travel. And anyhow - they weren’t yet sure of who was contacting them. Just because the signal came from his own Vortex Manipulator, it didn’t mean it had to be Jack in the cell.
His thoughts threatened to overwhelm him, so Ianto tried to focus on the job at hand. Make it to the cell. Run through the corridor, which was currently holding large, wide prison cells - but still in only double digits. He raced past, reading the number 43 on the closest one, and they continued to run forwards. As they reached the end of the line, the last cell finished at the number 99.
“Through here!” Rose shouted, having pushed open the doors at the end of the hallway to step into a foyer. She was pointing towards another wing, with the title ‘Cells 100 -110, High-Risk Convicts’. Ianto raised an eyebrow at that, but continued to follow his friend into the new hallway.
The cells here looked roomy and almost homely, if it wasn’t for the heavy set locked doors. He passed various cells, unable to see inside, but as he reached the eighth room he saw that the door was wide open. The two of them slowed down, expecting danger, but were surprised when they saw a woman with a big nest of curly blonde hair sitting calmly on her bed. She was writing in an open, blue notebook which Ianto presumed was a diary of sorts, and as she registered their presence she turned to them, giving them a wink and a smirk which rivalled even Jack’s.
The woman lifted her hand, pointing with one long finger to the cell directly beyond them, nodding as if to direct them. Rose and Ianto exchanged a glance, and decided it best to continue with their own plan: reaching cell one hundred and nine and finding out who was inside.
Rose pushed the door, unsurprisingly finding it solid and unmoving. They registered the lock, noting the futuristic looking security it was guarded with.
“How are we gonna unlock this?” Rose asked, exasperated. Ianto gave her a grin, reaching into his pocket to pull out a circular device which was barely bigger than his palm. As he held it up towards the lock, he felt a warm feeling fall through him at the memory of his friend Sally, silently thanking her for showing him the archive where he had found this device.
The metal began to meld to the lock, moving until it let out a series of clicking noises. The red indicator on the side of the lock changed to green, and the door shuddered quietly as it finished unlocking itself. Ianto pulled the device away and put it back in his pocket, turning to Rose.
“You ready?”
She grinned. “Always.”
Together, they pulled the door outwards until it was as wide as possible on its hinge. The room beyond was dark, and it took a moment for Ianto’s eyes to adjust to the lack of light. As soon as he did, his vision fixed on the figure in front of them, slouching on the furthest wall with a lazy smile on his frighteningly familiar face. The air caught in Ianto’s throat. No. It wasn’t-
“Well, well, well, what have I done to deserve this piece of eye candy coming to my rescue?”