Weird Al (aeron_lanart) wrote in highwood, @ 2008-01-15 22:22:00 |
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Title: The Mystery We Are
Author: Aeron Lanart
Rating: NC-17 in the last third, though most of it is PG-13
Genre: Torchwood crossover with Highlander. Drama.
Pairings: Jack/m in later parts
Summary: Jack learns more about immortality
Warnings: m/m smut in the last third
Spoilers: takes place after Episode 5 but before Episode 6 of Torchwood
Disclaimer: None of the Known characters belong to me.
Torchwood stuff belongs to the BBC and RTD
Highlander stuff belongs to Panzer-Davis
No copyright infringement intended, and no profit made.
Original characters belong to me, as does the story
Title from the song of the same name by All About Eve.
~*~
The next morning Gwen arrived bright and early, to find that Owen already at his work station.
“You’re chirpy this morning,” he observed. She grinned at him.
“I had a good night.”
“I’m glad you did.” Owen did not sound glad at all. Gwen took an unconscious step backward, and looked at him.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Take a look in the autopsy room; I’m sure Jack will fill you in on the details after that.” Concerned, Gwen dumped her bag and went as quickly as she could without running to the autopsy room balcony. She looked at the headless corpse for all of 3 seconds before rushing to Jack’s office.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here last night.” Jack smiled up at her.
“We could have called you. I felt it was important that we didn’t, and by the look of you this morning I was right. This is what we’ve got so far…” By the time he’d finished explaining the events of the previous night, the others had arrived and Ianto was working his coffee magic. Gwen went into a huddle with Toshiko to find out if the combination of the two of them could garner any more information than had been gained the night before, and Owen went back to see if the metal analysis was ready. After collecting the used coffee cups, Ianto was all set to follow them out of the office, he’d almost reached the door before he heard Jack call him.
“Ianto!” Ianto turned, heart in his mouth. He just *knew* what Jack was going to ask him. Still, he’d managed to keep Lisa a secret for a long time before anyone found out so he was hopeful he could ride this one out too. “Where did you manage to get that information about our body when Tosh drew a blank?” Ianto took a deep breath, he’d been right.
“Through contacts I made when I was with Torchwood 1, sir. I’m afraid I can’t give details, but I can guarantee there’s been no security breach…” he swallowed, “this time.” Ianto turned to leave, unable to meet Jack’s eyes. Jack knew as well as he did what he was referring to.
“Will you be able to use them again?” Ianto cast a surprised glance back over his shoulder at the older man. That was the *last* thing he’d expected Jack to ask.
“I should think so.”
“Good. Wouldn’t want to waste a possible resource.”
“Of course not.” With that, Ianto made good his escape, and didn’t notice Jack’s speculative gaze following him across the hub. A few minutes later, Jack followed him out of the office.
“I don’t believe it!” Owen shoved himself away from his workstation. “Jack, you’ve got to see this.” He leaned over to grab some papers off the printer as Jack headed toward him.
“What have you got?”
“The sword that was used on our friend in there.” Owen nodded in the direction of the autopsy room. “It’s meteoric. And more importantly, it’s impossible.”
“Impossible?”
“Well, merely improbable I suppose. The sword is about 1000 years old going by the analysis, but there are indications that the way it was worked date from much earlier than that. Unfortunately, we just don’t have a big enough sample to confirm that – unless we manage to find that sword. And if we do that…”
“Then we’ll probably have found the owner.”
“We’ve found something too,” Gwen announced from Toshiko’s work station. “But it’s rather odd.” Jack and Own both moved closer. “We found a photo of him; it even verifies the name…”
“But?”
“It’s Victorian.” Jack took a closer look at the screen.
“Definitely looks like our friend though. Maybe a relative?”
“That’s the rational explanation.” Gwen commented. Jack straightened, and leant against the edge of the desk,
“And you think?”
“I don’t know what to think. But I feel it’s the same guy, strange as it seems.” Owen, who had been peering closely at the picture on the screen, looked back at Gwen.
“Funnily enough, so do I.” Toshiko and Gwen gave him almost identical puzzled expressions. Owen sighed. “No, I don’t have a rational explanation; it’s just a gut feeling. I do have them occasionally you know.” He shrugged, and returned to his own workstation.
The rest of the day passed without incident, but also without any further leads on either the headless man or his killer. No-one suggested they go out after they’d finished for the day.
The good weather continued, and so did the lack of anything remotely supernatural or alien appearing in Cardiff. The unsolved mystery of the headless man was pushed to the back of everyone’s mind as they dealt with the more mundane aspects of their jobs, or as mundane as anything ever became in Torchwood.
The weather broke after another 4 days, with a rainstorm that swept in from the bay and blew over in a matter of hours, leaving the air cool and damp; perfect weevil weather. They all stayed late that night.
~*~
Sports bag in hand, Siannon left the half-lit gym. In typical immortal fashion, she’d been able to find the friend of a friend who was willing to help, in this case give her somewhere to practise her blade-work. Rationally she knew she should have left Cardiff as soon as she’d taken Kendrick’s head, but something kept her from leaving, a feeling that there was more to the city than met the eye, that something was going to leap out of the underbelly of the place, and soon. Never one to discount gut feelings, Siannon stayed, and because of that feeling it was essential to her to stay fighting fit. Her relationship with David Wong, the owner of the gym, had begun out of necessity but she had grown to like the martial arts master in the short time she’d known him, and they’d learned from each other. More importantly he was happy to let her use the place after hours as he lived in the flat above. That in itself had been a source of amusement; she’d gone halfway round the world and hadn’t seen them for years, yet things still reminded her of her Seacouver friends. She was walking through the damp and darkened streets when she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye. She began to follow, but caught only glimpses of whoever it was as they ran through the back streets. After some time, the figure seemed to have vanished, so she gave up the search and headed back to where she was staying, wondering why someone would be running around the back streets of Cardiff city centre wearing a mask that wouldn’t look out of place at Halloween. Suddenly a figure burst out from an alleyway, just a few feet in front of her. She only had a split second to realise that those teeth weren’t part of any mask, that this thing was *real* as it leapt at her, snarling. The bag was thrown to one side as she drew her sword, ready to defend herself. The creature had no weapon apart from its ferocious teeth and claws, but Siannon did not want to find out the hard way if you could be beheaded with a bite. There was no time for finesse or classy moves; she lopped off the reaching hand first, and then ran the creature through, approximately where the heart would have been in a human, following that up with a ‘gut’ stab to be sure. The creature did not appear to moving anymore, so she assumed it was dead. It was only then that she realised she was covered in the most foul-smelling stuff imaginable. She grabbed her bag, and left as quickly as she could without running.
The next night she had another encounter; and the night after that. The third day after she’d killed the first one, Siannon cancelled her gym session and decided to go hunting in the evening instead. She wanted to know where these things were coming from, and why no-one else seemed to be aware that there were living and breathing monsters on the streets of Cardiff.
~*~
“We’ve got another dead one.” Owen reported back to the hub as he gingerly poked at the lifeless weevil with his toe. “Sword wounds, again. Bit cleaner this time though, almost as if whoever is doing this is discovering how to be more efficient. Can’t tell if it’s the same weapon without doing further checks, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Anything on the CCTV?”
“Nothing.” Toshiko sounded frustrated. Owen sighed, and glanced a quick question at Gwen, who shook her head.
“No sign of anything round here either, apart from the dead weevil. Whoever is doing this knows how to fade into the background. Nothing we can do now, except clean up.”
Back at the hub, the team gathered in the boardroom to brainstorm. Jack was pacing, the others sat around the table, but none of them were any happier than Jack. He finally stopped pacing, and turned round to face them.
“We’ve 3 dead weevils in as many days, have any of you got *anything* to offer. Anything at all, no matter how stupid it seems?” He looked at each one of them as he asked his question, but no-one met his eyes. Except Ianto.
“We can try and get to the next weevil before she does.”
“She?!” Owen voiced the incredulity that most of them felt. Jack strode to the table, to his usual position and leaned on his hands, staring at Ianto. In a silent answer Ianto pushed the picture he’d been carrying across the table, toward him. Jack picked up the picture and studied it for a while before placing it back. The image was fuzzy and dark, but it showed a long haired, vaguely female looking figure in a long dark coat and boots. He sat down, and cast a glance round the others once more.
“She. It’s not clear, and unfortunately the CCTV didn’t get her face, but it’s definitely a woman.” His gaze came to rest on Ianto. “When did you get this?”
“Tonight, after Owen called in. I had a feeling that we were missing something, but that’s all I could find. The interesting thing, is that there’s a martial arts studio not far from the area where we’ve found all the dead weevils.”
“We’d best keep an eye on the place, then.” Jack took a deep breath, at last he felt like they were possibly getting somewhere. “Anything else?” Owen looked up and finally met Jack’s eyes.
“The sword used on all the weevils is the same as the one that beheaded Ryan Kendrick, so at least it looks like we’ve only got one sword-wielding maniac on our hands instead of a whole army.”
“Whoever she is, she’s become number 1 on the Torchwood Agenda.” Jack’s voice was icy. “We can’t allow this to continue.”
As the others filed out of the boardroom, Ianto lingered, watching Jack across the expanse of the table. They both listened to Owen suggesting that they get ‘Save the Weevil’ badges made, followed by a muffled thump. Jack grinned.
“So who hit him, Gwen or Tosh?” Ianto smiled back.
“Gwen. Tosh would have just glared.”
“I guess. So…” Jack walked round the table, to perch on the edge next to Ianto. “Have your… contacts… managed to come up with anything?”
“I’m afraid not, sir. If I’d had a face shot, I could possibly have obtained an id, but from what we’ve got there are too many possibilities.”
“Pity. Thanks for trying though.” Jack gave Ianto’s shoulder a quick squeeze before heading out of the boardroom, leaving Ianto to follow him.