Old Horizons, New Skies
During a fight with a figure from his past Jack is transported to a parallel Earth - faced with alternate versions of his Torchwood teams, both old and new, he begins to wonder whether Torchwood only ever ruins people's lives. Can he avoid drawing them all back in to the danger and madness again? And will he get home?
Warnings: language and a hint of sex
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Jack/OMC
Beta: truly awesome Rivendellrose
Notes: The title was inspired by a Konrad Adenauer quote, who said: "All of us live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon."
Art by Esta Moretti (LJ | e-mail | comment) and Rabecka (LJ | comment)
PROLOGUE
"Jack?"
Ianto fumbled with the headset, dragging it out from under a pile of paperwork and swinging one of Tosh's keyboards into reach. The desk was a mess... the whole Hub was a mess.
"Jack?" He asked again.
"Got anything for me?" Gwen's voice crackled through the comm accompanied by the sounds of the SUV's engine sputtering into life.
"Working on it," he told her, scrolling through the programmes. At least two dozen of them were running and the whole system looked as if it were slowly imploding under the strain.
"I'm going to kill Jack when I find him."
There wasn't even a pause. "Come on, Ianto, you know you wouldn't have me any other way," Jack said, slightly breathless.
"That's a position I'm definitely reconsidering." Ianto couldn't quite suppress a smile.
"Grrr... don't distract me, we can reconsider positions later. Extensively."
"When you two have quite finished," Gwen interrupted, "What the hell's going on, Jack?"
"Ah, you know, chasing a sexy alien - just how I like it." Jack sounded tense.
They'd got back to the Hub about ten minutes before to find all the security systems down and an alien rooting through their stuff. Messily, Ianto thought with annoyance as he finally found the right programme amidst the wreckage of the computer.
"Who is he, Jack?"
Jack didn't answer, which probably shouldn't have surprised them; Jack was still terrible at talking about his past. And whoever it was was definitely from the past... or the future, depending on how you looked at it. He had been wearing a Time Agency wrist band - which, from Ianto's perspective, was more or less a sign of impending doom.
Seconds after they'd appeared the alien had vanished with a grin and a wink and Jack had followed, after a sudden frenzy of button pushing and a muttered 'Sorry, Doctor.'
What was it about the other Time Agents that always made Jack run off, leaving the rest of them behind? Ianto tried to ignore the thought that it wasn't just Time Agents.
"Jack?" Gwen asked again. "We know you know him."
"He's called Jai," Jack said after a moment.
"They're by the castle, Gwen," Ianto told her, having managed to narrow the search boundaries to focus just on the wrist bands energy. The two dots blinked out of existence for a second and reappeared. "No, wait, they're back by the docks. Roath Dock, by Old Clipper Road."
"On my way."
"You kids following me?" Jack asked, over the sound of pounding footsteps.
"Glad to hear you're still with us," Ianto told him, blandly. "Feel free to tell us what's happening at any point."
"Wait!" Jack called, but it definitely wasn't aimed at them.
There was the noise of a struggle. And the sound of a gun shot.
"Jack!" Gwen shouted.
But they were just greeted by silence, and then suddenly an unfamiliar voice:
"Got me again, Jack?"
The ear-piece was suddenly alive with a high-pitched feedback squeal that ripped through Ianto's head. He squeezed his eyes shut against the pain, white lights dancing across the back of his eyelids.
"Fuck," Gwen swore.
The noise stopped as abruptly as it had started and he forced his eyes open again. At first he didn't know what he was seeing on the computer screens and then he could do nothing but stare at it in horrified comprehension.
"Jack?" Gwen was asking. "For fuck's sake, Jack, where are you? Ianto, what's going on?"
"He's gone... they're both gone."
"What?"
"There's no signal. They're not in Cardiff any more."