FIC: The Last Things Left to Lose 1/1
May. 30th, 2010 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsTITLE: The Last Things Left to Lose
AUTHOR:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
neadods
RATING: PG-13
SHOW/CHARACTER: Torchwood, Ianto
DISCLAIMER: All characters owned by BBC. No copyright infringement is intended. This is not an official tie-in.
T3 Link (under complete stories): a href="http://neadods.livejournal.com/980931.html">The Last Things Left to Lose by lj user="neadods"> (PG-13 | Ianto)
"There's always something left to lose." That's what Jack said the day he killed Lisa. The day he gutted Ianto more thoroughly than any cyber conversion unit could have done.
But Jack was, in a way, right. Ianto still had Lisa's memory left to lose, and he knew how liberally and casually Jack liked to spread retcon around. The night the inventory came up short, missing enough pills to erase two whole years, Ianto stopped his open mourning.
But he never stopped hating.
Considering Jack's status, it had been futile to swear he wanted to watch Jack die. Oh, it was true. It just wasn't permanent enough.
But there was still a way to get his revenge. The Cyberwoman had convinced Ianto she loved him, had said and done all the right things so that he was completely convinced that there was still something left of Lisa to save... right up to the point where that poor, innocent, dead, wholly human pizza girl used the word "Upgrade."
So in Lisa's memory, Ianto adopted her strategy... convincing his enemy of his love right up to the moment of betrayal. And someday, if he couldn't kill him, Ianto could at least make sure that Jack could indeed be stripped of everything he had to lose.
It was laughably easy to re-seduce Jack, who was so cock sure that everyone wanted his cock. Ianto mouthed all the things that he wanted to hear, and Jack, who never looked under the surface, not when Susie was killing people, not when Ianto was hiding a conversion unit, not when Tosh was being seduced into betraying them, still didn't look under the surface.
The problem wasn't putting one over on Jack. The problem was finding the right time to strike. It was a blow to Ianto when Jack disappeared with the Doctor - typical of Jack, to go on and on about loyalty and then abandon his team without so much as a note! The others thought he was pining for Jack, and Ianto let them.
Fortunately, Gwen made an excellent leader. Better yet, when Jack came back, she wasn't so star-struck over him anymore. She even directly disobeyed his orders, finding out (with Ianto's willing help) about Jack's little nursery of Rift rejects. Ianto might want Jack permanently dead or gone, but he didn't want Torchwood out of commission. Cardiff - especially those parts of Cardiff containing his own family - didn't deserve to get sucked down the Rift or flattened by whatever came through it. As long as Gwen was around, she'd take care of things.
Finally, finally, the golden chance came. The Doctor come and gone, half the team gone, the Hub gone, Jack's ability to bully the Government around gone... Jack had been stripped of much. He'd even had a couple of really ugly deaths. Ianto couldn't get him to talk much about it, but he did at least have the reassurance of Jack implying that he felt every bit of the pain. He even had the pleasure of dropping Jack off a cliff. If he was going to die - and he knew he was going to die soon - at least he'd brought one wild revenge fantasy to life.
It was a suicide mission to directly tackle the 456 without so much as a 3-quid dust filter mask. Seriously, when the options boiled down to breathing their putrid atmosphere, being exposed to the virus they'd unleashed before, or hoping they went away peacefully, anyone with four brain cells knew that everyone in that building was dead meat. Ianto knew that going in, even if Jack - impulsive, destructive, indestructible Jack - didn't. Jack had never been much of a details person.
Ianto was all about the details. He knew, for example, about Jack's little box of photographs and memories. He knew that Jack hated himself for things that weren't done or said for people who were gone, although Jack never took the opportunity to say or do them for the people who were still here. He even knew about Jack's family - again, more due to his memories of reading Jack's Torchwood One file than anything Jack ever said, at least until these final days. And he knew that Jack had learned to love him. Really, deeply love him, at least as much as he could love anyone.
So Jack still had two things left to lose, but Ianto knew how to strip both of them away with one death.
His own death, unfortunately, but every plan has a downside.
With him gone, Rhiannon would never let Jack near the children. He was all too likely to fix the problem by throwing more children at the 456, having already sacrificed innocents to them. Now it was guaranteed to be Jack's family offered up, not Ianto's.
With his family and his lover gone, Jack would drown in his own sorrow. Not forever, but for right now, and that was all Ianto was going to get. Maybe, because Jack would become careless from misery or simply careless without Ianto there to mop up, he would do something that would leave him being encased in cement for eternity again, or worse.
As the time came, Ianto ramped up discussion about being a couple. Jack didn't like it, but Ianto knew that Jack would file all the memories away and flog himself emotionally later about every missed "I love you," every frown that greeted Ianto's attempts to bond without sex. Speaking of sex, he'd even carefully timed his offer of a last shag in the knowledge that kitchen-proud Rhys would protest that their food was almost ready. Pathetically, it was probably the missed opportunity for sex that Jack would regret most of all.
Dying wasn't too bad, surprisingly. He'd expected the virus to shut down his lungs or throat, but it didn't. He just got weaker and weaker. It was a nice bonus; Ianto didn't really want to die in agony, even if it would have been satisfying to watch Jack writhing beside him. This was so much better; he still had a voice to twist the knife one last time, ensuring Jack would think Ianto died feeling forgotten.
Jack was sobbing and begging... and beginning to cough. It had taken years, but he'd done it. Jack Harkness was going to suffer and die, and Ianto wouldn't do a thing to help him. As the world faded to black, Ianto took one, last, satisfying thought with him to light the darkness.
I made him pay, Lisa.
AUTHOR:
neadodsRATING: PG-13
SHOW/CHARACTER: Torchwood, Ianto
DISCLAIMER: All characters owned by BBC. No copyright infringement is intended. This is not an official tie-in.
T3 Link (under complete stories): a href="http://neadods.livejournal.com/980931.html">The Last Things Left to Lose by lj user="neadods"> (PG-13 | Ianto)
"There's always something left to lose." That's what Jack said the day he killed Lisa. The day he gutted Ianto more thoroughly than any cyber conversion unit could have done.
But Jack was, in a way, right. Ianto still had Lisa's memory left to lose, and he knew how liberally and casually Jack liked to spread retcon around. The night the inventory came up short, missing enough pills to erase two whole years, Ianto stopped his open mourning.
But he never stopped hating.
Considering Jack's status, it had been futile to swear he wanted to watch Jack die. Oh, it was true. It just wasn't permanent enough.
But there was still a way to get his revenge. The Cyberwoman had convinced Ianto she loved him, had said and done all the right things so that he was completely convinced that there was still something left of Lisa to save... right up to the point where that poor, innocent, dead, wholly human pizza girl used the word "Upgrade."
So in Lisa's memory, Ianto adopted her strategy... convincing his enemy of his love right up to the moment of betrayal. And someday, if he couldn't kill him, Ianto could at least make sure that Jack could indeed be stripped of everything he had to lose.
It was laughably easy to re-seduce Jack, who was so cock sure that everyone wanted his cock. Ianto mouthed all the things that he wanted to hear, and Jack, who never looked under the surface, not when Susie was killing people, not when Ianto was hiding a conversion unit, not when Tosh was being seduced into betraying them, still didn't look under the surface.
The problem wasn't putting one over on Jack. The problem was finding the right time to strike. It was a blow to Ianto when Jack disappeared with the Doctor - typical of Jack, to go on and on about loyalty and then abandon his team without so much as a note! The others thought he was pining for Jack, and Ianto let them.
Fortunately, Gwen made an excellent leader. Better yet, when Jack came back, she wasn't so star-struck over him anymore. She even directly disobeyed his orders, finding out (with Ianto's willing help) about Jack's little nursery of Rift rejects. Ianto might want Jack permanently dead or gone, but he didn't want Torchwood out of commission. Cardiff - especially those parts of Cardiff containing his own family - didn't deserve to get sucked down the Rift or flattened by whatever came through it. As long as Gwen was around, she'd take care of things.
Finally, finally, the golden chance came. The Doctor come and gone, half the team gone, the Hub gone, Jack's ability to bully the Government around gone... Jack had been stripped of much. He'd even had a couple of really ugly deaths. Ianto couldn't get him to talk much about it, but he did at least have the reassurance of Jack implying that he felt every bit of the pain. He even had the pleasure of dropping Jack off a cliff. If he was going to die - and he knew he was going to die soon - at least he'd brought one wild revenge fantasy to life.
It was a suicide mission to directly tackle the 456 without so much as a 3-quid dust filter mask. Seriously, when the options boiled down to breathing their putrid atmosphere, being exposed to the virus they'd unleashed before, or hoping they went away peacefully, anyone with four brain cells knew that everyone in that building was dead meat. Ianto knew that going in, even if Jack - impulsive, destructive, indestructible Jack - didn't. Jack had never been much of a details person.
Ianto was all about the details. He knew, for example, about Jack's little box of photographs and memories. He knew that Jack hated himself for things that weren't done or said for people who were gone, although Jack never took the opportunity to say or do them for the people who were still here. He even knew about Jack's family - again, more due to his memories of reading Jack's Torchwood One file than anything Jack ever said, at least until these final days. And he knew that Jack had learned to love him. Really, deeply love him, at least as much as he could love anyone.
So Jack still had two things left to lose, but Ianto knew how to strip both of them away with one death.
His own death, unfortunately, but every plan has a downside.
With him gone, Rhiannon would never let Jack near the children. He was all too likely to fix the problem by throwing more children at the 456, having already sacrificed innocents to them. Now it was guaranteed to be Jack's family offered up, not Ianto's.
With his family and his lover gone, Jack would drown in his own sorrow. Not forever, but for right now, and that was all Ianto was going to get. Maybe, because Jack would become careless from misery or simply careless without Ianto there to mop up, he would do something that would leave him being encased in cement for eternity again, or worse.
As the time came, Ianto ramped up discussion about being a couple. Jack didn't like it, but Ianto knew that Jack would file all the memories away and flog himself emotionally later about every missed "I love you," every frown that greeted Ianto's attempts to bond without sex. Speaking of sex, he'd even carefully timed his offer of a last shag in the knowledge that kitchen-proud Rhys would protest that their food was almost ready. Pathetically, it was probably the missed opportunity for sex that Jack would regret most of all.
Dying wasn't too bad, surprisingly. He'd expected the virus to shut down his lungs or throat, but it didn't. He just got weaker and weaker. It was a nice bonus; Ianto didn't really want to die in agony, even if it would have been satisfying to watch Jack writhing beside him. This was so much better; he still had a voice to twist the knife one last time, ensuring Jack would think Ianto died feeling forgotten.
Jack was sobbing and begging... and beginning to cough. It had taken years, but he'd done it. Jack Harkness was going to suffer and die, and Ianto wouldn't do a thing to help him. As the world faded to black, Ianto took one, last, satisfying thought with him to light the darkness.
I made him pay, Lisa.
