AN: Once again a massive thank you to everyone that has reviewed and read my story so far. Phoenix is now dividing into a sort of series, this is the last chapter of Rebirth coinciding with the end of TW series 1. The Doctor Who episodes with Jack, Utopia/Sound of Drums/Last of the TimeLords will be up soon, I've written it just need final editing and maybe some tweaking. Much love to those who have stuck with me so far.

Chapter 20: Inevitable Part 2.

The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.- Dom Williams.

"Are we going to try and find Bilis?" Gwen asked as Jack and Owen broke up their confrontation.

"No, he's trying to lure us into another trap, we don't listen to anything he says." Jack said sharply turning away and going into his office and slamming his door shut.

Ianto stood watching Jack' closed office door for a few moments before he followed him ignoring Gwen's protests to leave him.

"What the hell was that?" Ianto asked once he got inside the office.

"What?" Jack asked defensively.

"You're mood swings are driving me nuts. Bilis is our only lead here and you won't go after him." Ianto continued angrily.

Jack sighed and turned away from Ianto.

"This is all going to go to shit." Jack huffed.

"There has to be something we can do." Ianto asked.

"There is." Jack replied.

"What?"

"Don't you think it's curious? Bilis orchestrated the events that led to Gwen and I being stranded in the past, he's here in the present, Gwen's already seen him and the rift is splintering. Opening the rift is dangerous, we have no idea what could happen." Jack said calmly watching his lover.

"I know that." Ianto told him. "Talk to me here, what's going on, you're acting really odd."

"Don't worry." Jack said automatically.

"Well I am."

Jack turned to Ianto and hugged him tightly. Ianto was shocked, usually they had a very professional relationship at work yet here Jack was breaking those rules.

"What's wrong? You are acting as if this really is the end of the world."

Jack leaned back and cupped Ianto's cheeks. "This is not the end of the world, I promise you that. You won't understand this now but I will always come back to you."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll understand later." Jack kissed Ianto chastely.

They were interrupted by Tosh knocking on the door.

"What is it?"

"I don't know. Andy's called in saying there's a fight breaking out between the Roman legion at Cardiff Castle and the UNIT squad we posted there to keep them contained. Gwen's rushed out and Owen's stormed out when you came in here." Tosh reported.

Jack nodded. "Where has Gwen gone?"

"I don't know. I think Owen's sulking, but Gwen left quite suddenly." She said looking worried.

Jack nodded. "Alright then, call Gwen find out what she's doing and call Owen and get him back. Get Andy to order UNIT to drop some CS gas in the perimeter to keep them inside the castle. And get another UNIT squad there."

Gwen in the meanwhile had rushed from the hub when she saw Bilis lurking in the corner mouthing the words 'I'm so sorry' She left the hub hoping that Bilis would follow, Jack seemed to be unsure of what to do so she could follow her own leads with caution.

Gwen rushed down the Plass she made it past the Millenium Centre when she saw Bilis again.

"I'd have thought you would have tried to find me." He commented as Gwen approached him.

"You were in 1941." Gwen said instead.

"So were you."

"How can you do that?"

"I can slip through the times as easy as stepping into another room." He said airily. "At first I thought it were a blessing, now I see it for what it is, a curse."

"Why is that?" Gwen asked curiously.

"I can go anywhere in time, but I don't belong anywhere, like your friend."

"Jack? He belongs here." Gwen defended.

Bilis gave her a superior look as if he knew more than her.

"What do you know about what is going on?" Gwen asked instead.

"You're coming back through time left its mark." Bilis said. "It's splintering and the only way to resolve that is to open it fully, allow what has fallen through to be sucked back and the rift to close naturally."

"Can we even do that?" Gwen asked more to herself.

"Oh yes you can. Your leader probably doesn't want you to know that."

Gwen didn't answer.

"Lives will be lost if this doesn't get resolved. Your Captain is stuck in his ways, I can visit the future, I know things will return to normal." Bilis said.

"Why did you say sorry, earlier in the cells." Gwen asked.

"No, sometimes it is better to be ignorant." Bilis turned to leave.

"No, wait," Gwen danced around and faced him again "Tell me."

"I can show you…if you really want to know."

"Know what?"

Bilis appeared to be hesitant. "Take my hands."

Gwen hesitated and looked at him carefully before putting her hands in his.

Gwen saw flashed of her flat with Rhys, the view changed and she saw bloody walls, the sharp tang of blood in the air, she saw Rhys' dead lifeless, bloody body lying face down between the couch and the kitchen, a pool of blood coagulating under him.

"What did you show me?" Gwen stepped back taking her hands back.

"The future." Bilis said solemnly.

Gwen looked at him before running as fast as she could away from him.

Gwen ran home as fast as she could, she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Rhys standing in the kitchen.

"Oh there you are, home today are we? I was thinking…" Rhys said as he heard and saw her come inside.

"Rhys, we need to go." Gwen said after she hugged him tightly and kissed him,

"Go where?"

"It's very important, come on." Gwen said urgently pulling at his arm.

"It always is with you Gwen." Rhys chuckled. "You've only got one speed these days."

"Rhys please!"

"Give me a minute." Rhys had been in the middle of cleaning the oven, he pulled off the marigold gloves. "Where's the fire then eh love?"

"Rhys, we need to go somewhere else, please." Gwen said as she cast looks around her as if someone was after her.

"We have to go!" Gwen raised her voice.

"Ever since that bloody job I don't understand half of what you're going on about." Rhys said getting agitated.

Gwen sighed. "I'm so sorry." She tasered Rhys.

Once Gwen got Rhys back to the hub she put him in the cells.

Jack was watching the CCTV of Rhys in the cells anxiously, he had said several times to bring him up to the main level but Gwen said not to.

Gwen spoke with him once he woke up and left him to come back to work.

Ianto went down to the cells shortly after wards to speak with him.

"Gwen!" Rhys shouted once he heard the end door open again.

"It's Ianto."

"Oh, you alright mate. Can you get me out of here then eh?" Rhys and Ianto knew each other for a few years, Rhys knew Ianto's older sister and her husband so Ianto and Rhys had met a few times before Ianto joined Torchwood.

"Listen, I don't know what Gwen has told you about where we work." Ianto started.

"Bloody nothing, just some weird bits," Rhys huffed.

"Things are pretty hectic and strange out there right now. Gwen thinks by keeping you here you will be safe." Ianto wasn't really sure how locking up would help but Gwen was being stubborn.

"How? I was just fine in the flat. How did you get mixed up with this Yan?"

"Been here for a few years," Ianto smiled. "Just sit tight Rhys, once the situation is resolved we'll explain what's going on."

"Tell me now." Rhys asked agitated. "You can't lock me up, that's against my civil rights."

"We don't have to adhere to civil rights, and you're not arrested or in trouble." Ianto sighed. "I'll try and get Gwen to put you upstairs at the very least. She's just worried for your life."

Rhys sighed.

"I had thought that he would be the route to my plan. I see now that it is not true." Bilis Manger said from the corner of the vaults, co inciding with the intruder alarms going off.

"Jack! Bilis is down in the vaults." Ianto automatically tapped his ear piece to alert Jack.

"It won't work." Bilis chided gently.

The door exiting the vault floor was locked and the vault doors were still locked with Rhys looking on helplessly as Bilis walked forward smoothly.

"What do you want?" Ianto asked internally chastising himself for not having a weapon on him.

"What I want?" Bilis smiled. He drew his hand into his suit jacket and withdrew a small revolver. "A knife is so much better, more intimate I find." He said casually. "But you probably have some hand to hand training, so this will have to do."

"Leave him alone." Rhys slammed his fist on the vault door.

"I'd be grateful if I were you." Bilis addressed Rhys. "For you were my initial target."

"It was fake, what you showed Gwen." Ianto asked.

"No, it was real, but I've changed my mind now." Bilis shot his weapon, hitting Ianto in the chest.

Rhys watched helplessly as Ianto fell to the floor dark red blood seeping into his stark white shirt as Bilis disappeared in a heartbeat and the intruder alarm stop.

The vault door opened and Rhys rushed out and dropped to his knees next to Ianto, his hands already pulling off his shirt and pressing it to his gunshot wound to stem the flow of blood. His other hand grasped the ear piece on Ianto's ear hoping he could raise the alarm.

"Hello? We need help here." Rhys said tapping it like Ianto had done.

"RHYS!" He heard Gwen yell with the thundering of feet.

"Gwen!" He yelled back.

"Oh Rhys! You're OK." She yelled back happily as she sped around the corner falling to her knees at the sight of her boyfriend desperately trying to keep Ianto alive.

"Oh, my god!" Gwen whispered crawling closer taking in the sight of Ianto's barely moving chest.

"We need to call an ambulance." Rhys said urgently.

The rest of the thundering of feet entered the vaults and they all took in what had happened.

"No, no, no, no!" Jack cried out as he fell to the floor his hands fluttering uselessly around Ianto. "No, no, no, no, no, please."

"Where's Owen?" Gwen asked Tosh who was at the door, looking at her best friend dying.

"He, erm, he's coming back." Tosh said before using her phone to find Owen or Matt.

"Ianto?" Jack asked his hands settling onto the cloth covered wound to help stop the blood.

"It was some bloke called Bilis." Rhys said thinking it would help that he told them everything he knew from their short exchange. "He tried calling you on the ear thing you have but it wasn't working."

"How can he get into the hub?" Gwen asked angrily keeping close to Rhys as if to protect him if Bilis came back.

"He shouldn't, at least we know that he triggers the intruder alarm when he does." Tosh said quietly her eyes fixated on the dying form of her best friend.

"Ianto, please hold on, come on, stay with me," Jack begged the man in his arms. "Please, stay with me."

"Hey, it was good yeah?" Ianto asked blearily, opening his eyes a crack, startled to see Jack crying unashamedly.

Jack sobbed, he mind flickering back to where he first heard those words in a similar scenario before.

"Don't forget me." Ianto whispered.

"Never could." Jack replied. "I'll remember you even if I were a billion years old."

Ianto smiled softly. "I love you."

"I love you Ianto, and you're going to fine, you have to stay with me." Jack begged.

Jack pressed a tender kiss to Ianto's lips, as Ianto's chest stilled.

"Oh, god." Gwen sobbed falling back onto the floor next to Ianto and Jack.

"How is he?" Owen asked. He had come back to an entirely different hub, Jack was sitting with Ianto in the autopsy bay where he carried his lover up, Jack hadn't said a word to anyone only sat with Ianto touching him as if he let go Ianto would disappear.

"He's just sitting there." Tosh whispered. "He looks distraught."

"Opening the rift is supposed to fix all this. It could bring him back." Owen said.

"We can't trust Bilis. Rhys said that he was the man that killed Ianto. He's goading us into this very action."

"You can't tell me you want him to stay dead!" Owen snarled at her flinging a hand in Ianto's direction angrily. He regretted it moments later when her eyes filled with tears and she looked away.

"He's my best friend." Tosh replied.

Owen huffed and returned his gaze to the autopsy bay where he could see Jack flitting over Ianto, smoothing his clothes out and running his hand through his hair as if he were injured and asleep rather than dead.

"What's happened?" Jane asked the moment she stepped through the cog door, with Matt on her heels, they had just been given the order from Jack to get to the hub asap and they dropped their posts with UNIT to come back.

"What the hell happened to Ianto?" Matt asked as he saw Jack and Ianto down in the autopsy.

"Bilis Manger shot Ianto down in the vaults when he went to speak with Rhys, long story." She waved at the part where they didn't know why Rhys was in the hub.

"Good, you guys are here." Jack had heard Jane and Matt's approach and left Ianto's side with a kiss and a promise.

"Jack." Tosh startled at his sudden reappearance and the look of cold determination on his face.

"Listen to me very carefully and most definitely do not repeat what I'm about to do." Jack started.

"OK," They promised.

"Right, Jane, I want you to watch Ianto, Tosh I want you on the terminals eyes on all the heat signatures in the hub, Owen, let Myfanwy out." He added the last part seeing how Ianto gave Jack a bollocking the last time because Myfanwy had been quite badly injured trying to escape the hub in the ruckus, Myfanwy would do what she did every time she was let out, she would bank over the waters and head towards Penarth.

"Jack's it's the middle of the day."

"Why?"

"Heat signatures?" They all asked immediately.

"I just told you to listen to me carefully. I doubt any of those requests were too difficult for you." Jack said harshly.

The three of them nodded and moved to their spots.

"Rhys, I want you to stay there." Jack said, knowing that he'd likely disappear.

Jack went to Tosh's workstation relegating Tosh over to Owen's station and started Protocol One.

"What's Protocol One?" Gwen asked since she had the best view over Jack's shoulder.

"Protocol One is accessing the rift manipulator. Jack's going to open the rift." Owen said slightly horrified and glad at the same time, he exchanged a look with Tosh.

Jack didn't say anything instead handed the iris recognition to Gwen and instructed her to scan all the staff inside the hub, which included Ianto. Since Andy was barely a part time member Jack never added his recognition onto the Protocol.

"Why didn't you need this last time?" Gwen asked Tosh once she handed the iris recognition back over to Jack.

"We increased security of the rift manipulator since then, plus because we're opening the rift blindly and completely it needs this regardless." Tosh explained.

"Do we have any idea what could happen?" She asked.

"What if it were Rhys on that table?" Tosh asked.

"I'd have done anything." Gwen replied softly understanding Jacks motives.

Jack had initiated Protocol One and slipped on his coat, knowing they'd have to leave the hub in seconds. The rumbling of the ground and the scattering of the loose objects around the hub told Jack it was working.

He heard Jane exclaim that Ianto had disappeared as Tosh cried out that the heat signature had reappeared. Jack turned to the spot where Ianto had reappeared. The exact spot he was standing in as Owen opened the rift the first time. Ianto looked puzzled at the state of the hub and the anxious expressions of his team mates.

"We gotta go." Jack rushed forward and grasped Ianto's hand and pulled him towards the exit.

"But Rhys! Where's he gone?" Gwen cried out as Tosh and Owen followed Jack out of the hub.

"He'll be at your flat, where he was at the start of all this." Jack yelled out, the joy evident in his voice.

They managed to get a street or two away, Gwen telling them all that everything would work out.

They turned down a corner and saw Bilis watching the skies intensely.

"From out of the darkness he has come." He said grandly.

"What is he talking about?" Gwen asked breathlessly.

"Son of the Great Beast, cast out before time, chained in rock and imprisoned beneath the rift." He continued in a grand voice.

"What?" Gwen gasped.

"Tosh, get the SUV." Jack croaked at her.

"All hail Abaddon, the Great Devourer." He continued. "Come feast on life!"

"The whole world will die beneath his shadow."

As they all turned to see the great hulking figure of an enormous beast Bilis used the moment to disappear.

Tosh came back with the car that was parked around the corner.

"How do we stop this." Gwen asked desperately.

Jack turned to Ianto. "Remember what I told you earlier. I love you." He kissed Ianto passionately and got into the car. "Stay here, stay safe. Gwen drive."

Gwen got in the car and took off.

"Why me?" Gwen asked as she drove.

Jack didn't answer.

Once they were at an open space Jack got out of the car telling Gwen to get away.

Jack lured Abaddon to him and his bottomless pit of life force fought against Abaddon's opposite effect killing Abaddon.

Gwen rushed back to Jack once Abaddon disappeared and was dismayed to see that he was dead. She dragged him back into the SUV and drove back to the hub.

"What happened?" Owen asked as he met her at the SUV.

"He's dead. But he'll come back again." Gwen said determinedly.

Owen helped bring him down to the medical bay and left him with Ianto as Tosh started clearing up the debris that had fallen. Gwen rushed off again presumably to find out if Rhys was OK.

Ianto sat with Jack as he heard Owen and Tosh call the others back to the hub and start the clean up operation.

"He's still cold mate." Owen said hours later.

"He'll come back." Ianto replied.

Owen left Ianto to it.

Gwen came back with the good news that Rhys was alive and well and didn't remember any of the incidence. She sat with Ianto for some time, supporting his belief that Jack would come back.

The next day however Owen moved Jack down to the storage vaults, he was clinically dead, he was cold, had gone through rigor mortis and his pallor was changing just like any dead body.

Both Ianto and Gwen protested to putting Jack in the storage vaults, so Owen let them wait it out.

"He'll come back." Gwen said for the third time that morning as she watched Ianto sit on the floor next to Jack's slab.

"You've got your boyfriend back Gwen. Why are you here? Just leave me alone." Ianto asked tiredly.

Gwen came and sat down next to him. "Yes, I got Rhys back but Jack's, well Jack's taking his sweet time coming back. He'll come back cariad."

"I don't know, it's been so long. He says it only takes a few hours."

"He tells you that?"

"Yeah, he's told me." Ianto admitted. "He said he'd be back, but he's taking so long."

"Tosh found this earlier, it was on Jack's desk." Gwen withdrew the envelope from her pocket and handed it to Ianto.

Ianto took the envelope and looked at it before opening it, Jack had beautiful handwriting which Jack said was only from having to use old style calligraphy pens in the past that improved his penmanship.

Dear Ianto,

As you are reading I will be lying dead in the morgue after facing Abaddon. I knew this was going to happen, hence my 'moodswings' as you called them, I keep my promises to you. I will be back, it may take a few days but I'll return, speak to me, touch me, kiss me. It'll help bring me back.

Don't hesitate to boot anyone out if you can't stand them, I want you next to me when I come back, because it'll always be you that I'm coming home for.

There is an envelope in the top drawer of my desk that contain instructions for the team, if you need them after I wake up. The Doctor has appalling timings for a Time Lord so he'll end up arriving pretty soonish, there may not be time to say goodbye but without wanting to steal someone else's line I'll be back. I'll always come back to you Ianto. But I have to go with the Doctor, timelines and all. Take care of the team while I am gone, I trust you with them.

Take care of my heart, for I've left it with you.

Jack.

Ianto sobbed as he finished the letter, folding it carefully and putting it in his pocket.

Gwen put her arm around Ianto and soothed him.

"Go home to Rhys, Gwen. I want to be alone with him." Ianto asked her.

"Alright. If you want company, just call me OK." Gwen said kissing his cheek and leaving him.

Ianto tried to speak with Jack, he held his hand or stroked his hair or face but it took two days for Jack to come back. Ianto had leaned down and kissed him, and mere seconds later Jack opened his eyes and took a quite breath.

"Jack?"

"Ianto." Jack smiled. "Told you so."

Ianto chuckled and leaned down and kissed Jack again.

It took some time to help Jack up, his muscles were rather stiff from lying still for days and Ianto helped him into his clothes and they made their way upstairs.

"Jack!" Gwen spotted him first and hugged him exuberantly before hugging Ianto.

Tosh rushed over for a hug herself, Jane, Matt and Andy all greeting him happily, glad that he was alright. Jack hugged Owen and said he forgave him for his doubts about Jack when he saw him much to Owen's relief.

"Why didn't you want me to go with you when you faced Abaddon?" Ianto asked when Owen and Tosh left to get coffees, the others disappearing to give Jack and Ianto some alone time together.

"I didn't want you near it, I could survive it but you can't. Gwen on the other hand, she'd be fine if she done what I told her, she needed to see the effect of her blindly following Bilis against my orders."

Ianto nodded.

"I was trying to keep you safe."

"Why do I remember everything that happened but Rhys doesn't?" Ianto asked.

"You were in the eye of the storm so to speak." He said stiffly. "Both times the rift opened you were here, Rhys was only there once so he doesn't remember it but you do."

"The Doctor is coming for you?" Ianto asked moving onto the letter.

"Not exactly." Jack replied. He moved to his desk and withdrew the letter in question. "States that you are in charge, you're the eldest member of Torchwood apart from Tosh and Owen, both of whom can't lead this team."

"Don't you want me to come with you and the Doctor?" Ianto asked carefully.

Jack had withdrawn a backpack from his quarters and left his office, he dropped the bag next to the Doctors severed hand and turned back to Ianto.

He took Ianto into his arms, "The Doctor won't want to see me, I'll literally have to jump him probably."

Ianto nodded.

"Is that a no?"

"I want you to come with me, I've wanted to show you the stars for a while now, but I might not even be able to get inside the TARDIS before the Doctor tries to leave."

Ianto nodded.

"I love you, and I swear, I'm coming back." Jack said resting his forehead against Ianto.

"I love you too." Ianto said kissing Jack intensely.

"Shall I see what's taking them so long with the coffees?" Ianto offered as Jack put on his coat ready to go for when the Doctor arrived.

Jack nodded and kissed Ianto goodbye, sure that the Doctor would arrive and leave before Ianto returned.

Ianto nodded and left the hub.

Jack paced slightly patting his pockets to check he had everything he needed. Once the hand starting reacting he put it in the bag, cast one look at the hub and ran towards the TARDIS.

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