#think about the sun pippin.. think about her golden glance.. how she lights the world up. well now it's your chance!!!!!! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

jbharrisauthor · 7 years ago

Text

Episode 1 - Timing is Anything - Chapter Four

Read Chapter One here

Read Chapter Two here

Read Chapter Three here

When Ianto woke up some time later, The Doctor was nowhere to be seen. He sat up, finding his head felt better at least. The two empty mugs and tray were still sitting on the floor next to the seat, so he picked them up and took them back to the kitchen. Though he hadn’t ventured far, the TARDIS seemed like a maze, leaving him wondering exactly how big it was. Amazing that something so compact on the outside could seemingly go on forever.

Once he’d cleaned up what little mess he’d made, he returned to the control console, but still didn’t see The Doctor anywhere.

“Doctor?” He called out, wondering if she’d gone out somewhere. He supposed it didn’t matter, but the thought of being left alone on an unfamiliar planet so far in the future was a little unnerving.

“Up here!”

He glanced up to see The Doctor leaning over a railing in an upper level that he hadn’t even noticed earlier. Unless it hadn’t been there before. But that was impossible, wasn’t it? An entire level appearing and disappearing. Actually, considering the day he’d had—basically dying in Jack’s arms, only to be revived and then whisked away to a distant world colonized by future humans—it was probably completely redundant to say anything was impossible.

Finding the steps, he went up to join her where she was sorting through racks of clothing.

“What are you doing?”

She pulled a pink frou-frou dress out and looked over it. “We’ll need something to wear to this unification thing tonight.”

“God, no. Not that.” He took it from her hand and shoved it away again.

She crossed her arms, looking unimpressed. “Have some experience picking out women’s dresses, do you?”

“You’ve got no idea. Pretty much anything you can think of, I’ve done it for Torchwood at one point or another.” He scooted a few hangars along the rail, checking the dresses until he found something better. “Here try this one.”

She didn’t bother looking at the dress, but set it aside. “It’s only fair I pick you an outfit in return.”

“I’ll be fine in these.” He smoothed both hands over the dark grey vest he had on. It might have been a little on the wrinkled side, but for some reason, the thought of changing made him feel like he was further away from Earth than ever.

“Come on, Mr. Jones. Where’s your sense of adventure? I promise you can change into them again as soon as we get back later.”

She pulled out a white shirt and pair of black pants. “Here. These should do the job.”

He didn’t move to take them, so she pressed them against his chest.

“Go on, now. Head through there and get changed. We don’t want to be late.”

He sighed as he took the garments. “Fine, but if I don’t like it, I’m taking them off again.”

Following the way she’d pointed, he found a kind of dressing room with spare hangers that he put his own clothes on, then dressed in the outfit The Doctor had picked for him. The black pants were a kind of slim legged, and a little more casual than the pressed trousers he usually wore to work. The white shirt seemed almost old fashioned, only buttoning three quarters of the way up his chest and then gaping open with a single string-tie to keep it together at the top.

He slipped his own shoes back on and then walked out. “I need a neck tie.”

The Doctor had put on the loose, light-blue, knee-length dressed he’d picked out. It suited her just as perfectly as he’d guessed.

“No you don’t. You look great.”

“I feel naked without a tie.” He tried to pull the collar closed, but it simply fell open again. “I’m changing back.”

“Not so fast.” She grabbed his arm and steered him away from the dressing room when he would have gone back in. “We don’t have time now. Almost sunset, you know.”

“Fine, but I’m lodging an official complaint about the lack of a neck tie.”

“Noted. I’ve got a cool collection of bow ties. Remind me to show you later.”

They left the TARDIS, the light in the sky now more a pink colour than the orange it had been during the afternoon. The red star was an amazing sight. He’d never imagined he might see anything like it in his lifetime.

The streets were a little quieter now, some of the shops and stalls closing up for the night; people likely going home to their families. Some things didn’t change, it seemed, even five hundred years in the future.

When they walked down the block to the temple, there was a small crowd amassing, slowly making their way inside.

“Notice anything?” The Doctor asked, leaning into him and keeping her voice low.

“They’re all couples.” Some were men with women, some were men with men, and some were women with women. But there wasn’t a single person who looked like they were alone.

“Interesting,” The Doctor murmured.

Unusual, yes. But did it have anything to do with what was going on here?

“Hopefully the ceremony won’t go for too long,” he mumbled under his breath to avoid being overheard now that they were closer to the other couples entering. “I don’t want to get high again.”

“Oh, that reminds me. Take this.” She held out a small yellowish capsule.

“Now what are you trying to give me?”

He took it from her palm and held it up so he could examine it more closely.

“It’s to counteract the incense. It’s made up of amino acids and a few other bits and bobs. I’ve already had one. Don’t worry, Mr. Jones, poisoning you would be completely counterproductive.”

“I’m not worried about getting poisoned so much as throwing up from the foul taste.”

“This one tastes just fine.”

He put the capsule in his mouth and it immediately dissolved on his tongue. An almost-burning sensation hit the back of his throat, like taking a shot of strong alcohol. He coughed a couple of times, eyes watering.

“Okay, maybe fine was an exaggeration.” The Doctor grinned at him, completely unrepentant.

“You might want to think twice about drinking the next cup of tea I make you,” he said, voice hoarse.

She didn’t look the least bit worried about his threat. “Come on.”

They followed the rest of the couples, walking deeper into the temple than last time, past the room where his shrine was situated. At the end of a long corridor, they came to a narrow set of steps. The stairs opened out onto a balcony where there was an unobstructed view of the distant setting red sun.

A couple stood at the front, near the stone balustrade, beneath some kind of bronze structure he supposed was an altar. All the couples who’d come to watch were finding seats on round, flat cushions strewn about the floor. The Doctor snagged two and they went over to the edge of the crowd, keeping to the back and sitting down close to the wall only a few feet from the door.

Once the crowd settled, a woman appeared from a side archway, bowing her head gracefully as people offered her greetings and small gifts.

She stopped in front of the altar, but didn’t mount it, leaving the couple standing up there by themselves.

“Lovers and friends, we are gathered here to witness the ultimate act of love. The ceremony of infinite unification is not suited to everyone, and not to be considered lightly. Pippin and Zalia have proven their deep commitment to one another, their love vast and unending.”

She held her arms out and a buzzing started up, a bit like a swarm of bees.

“What’s that noise?” Ianto whispered to The Doctor, who’d pulled some kind of slim device out of her pocket. “Is that your sonic screwdriver?”

Another thing about The Doctor that Jack had told him. A tool like that certainly would have come in handy around Torchwood, but it seemed The Doctor’s was one of a kind.

“Yes,” she whispered in return, subtly pointing it toward the altar as the sonic screwdriver made a humming-whirring sound. “That noise is coming from the altar, some kind of energy, I’m guessing.”

The woman at the front had started leading the couple through a series of vows, as the buzzing became more intense and the bronze structure bloomed with a muted glow.

The Doctor checked her sonic screwdriver, alarm crossing her features.

“What is it?” If The Doctor was worried, surely that had to be a very bad sign.

“I was right, some kind of quantum energy is amassing.” She adjusted a setting on her screwdriver and pointed it at the structure for a second time.

“What for? What’s it doing?”

“Well usually I’d say it was going to explode.”

“What?” He glanced around, calculating if the door or the railing was closer for a fast escape, and which was likely to end in less chance of them getting injured.

“But it’s very well contained. Almost safe. Well, as safe as amassing quantum energy can be.”

“Almost safe? Sorry if that doesn’t instil me with a lot of confidence. Shouldn’t we get out of here?” He shifted up to a crouch, ready to run.

The buzzing turned into a low whine and then cut off.

“Too late.”

The Doctor grabbed his arm and he held his breath, pretty much expecting to get blown to pieces.

Golden light flashed from the top of the bronze structure, but it aimed downward, straight into the couple standing beneath it. The two of them lit up, falling together, embracing each other tight. A second later, there was another bright flash, this one almost blinding. He had to glance away, and when he looked back, the couple weren’t standing there any longer, but tiny golden particles were floating up into the sky.

“They have joined the infinite unified who’ve gone before them,” the woman at the front announce. “Now, Pippin and Zalia will be together forever in the cosmos.”

The crowd cheered as people stood and hugged each other, others sharing passionate kisses.

“What just happened?” he asked. Oh, he had an idea. But he must have been wrong. He had to be wrong.

“What the hell did they just do?” he demanded when The Doctor didn’t answer right away.

The expression on her face look almost as dazed and disbelieving as he felt.

“I think—I think they. No. They can’t have.” She shoved to her feet and hurried through the crowd, crossing the balcony on an angle to cut off the woman who had led the ceremony as she headed toward the archway she’d appeared from earlier.

He was a bit slower getting up, and as he tried to navigate the crowd, a few people tried to pull him in for hugs. The girl they’d met earlier—the one who’d told them about this—stepped into his path and aimed a kiss in his direction, which he avoided directly. By the time he caught up with The Doctor, she was already questioning the woman just inside the archway.

“Did you just do what I think you did?”

“I didn’t do anything,” the woman huffed in reply. “I only facilitate the ceremonies.”

“What happened to them?” he asked, but neither woman looked at him.

“That couple, tell me we didn’t all just sit around and watch them get turned into quantum dust.”

The woman arched a brow, suspicion creeping into her expression. “Not many people understand the mechanics of what the altar does by sight alone. Most come for the beauty of a couple giving themselves over to an eternity in love.”

“Beauty?” The Doctor repeated, tight anger in her voice. “There is nothing beautiful about two young people killing themselves.”

“They did what?” Ianto leaned heavily into the nearby wall, mind reeling.

This temple, with its shrine dedicated to him… they were some kind of suicide-pact cult? People were killing themselves in his name?

“I think I’m going to be sick.” He bent over at the waist, gulping a breath and trying to force his stomach to stop from churning so much.

The Doctor set a gentle hand on his back.

“It’s okay, Ianto. We’ll fix this.” Her voice was laced with steel, as if nothing and no one would stop her once she set her mind to something.

“There’s nothing to be fixed,” the other woman snapped, sounding affronted. “Who are you, to think you can come in here and judge us?”

“I’m The Doctor. I’m the person who is going to make sure no one else goes through your infinite unification ceremony.”

“And I’m Ianto Jones.” He straightened, anger making him forget about feeling sick. “The same Ianto Jones you’ve got pinned up to your walls down there and I’m telling you it definitely isn’t okay that people are making suicide pacts and killing themselves. That’s not love. That’s horrific.”

“Impossible,” the woman breathed, backing up a step as her eyes widened.

“Lady, if I’ve only learned one thing today, it’s that nothing is impossible.”

“That’s a double negative.” The Doctor mumbled sideways at him. “I think you mean anything is possible.”

“In this situation it works. Okay? No offense, Doctor, but shut up.” He glared at the woman who’d officiated over the ceremony. “And you. You go and shut down that machine or device or whatever it is. Right now.”

“I can’t just shut it off.” The woman had gone pale, staring at Ianto like he was a ghost. “They’ll know. They’ll come for me.”

“Who?” The Doctor demanded. “Who are they, the ones who set up this temple? What are their names?”

“I don’t know their names.” She edged toward the door, clearly ready to flee. “I only know what they call themselves.”

“Then what do they call themselves?” The Doctor’s voice was sharp with impatience.

“The Timeless. They call themselves The Timeless.”

Read Chapter Five here

#fanfiction #torchwood #ianto jones #captain jack harkness #doctor who #13th doctor #torchwood au #doctor who au #ao3 #tardis #crossover fic #ianto jones x 13th doctor

6 notes · View notes