Title: Fated Ones
Author: Caz251
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen, cast of COE, The Fates
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi
Rating: G
Prompt: 22 - a second story_lottery
Summary: The Fates were not amused by the events of the first four days of Children of Earth, so they have to change things to make time run as close to the way it should have as possible.
Spoilers: Spoilers for Torchwood: Children Of Earth
Warning(s): Slash, Character Death, Mentions of Slavery
Word Count: 2535
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood, it belongs to the BBC, however much I wished otherwise.
A/N: Fix-it fic for Torchwood: Children of Earth, from day four onwards.

She sighed as she looked down on the Earth, she had taken her gaze away from the scrying orb in front of her for only a second, one second, and in that time everything once again went wrong. She had looked away for a second and when she looked back at the orb four days had passed, something that was impossible, the only people who had the ability to play with time was the fates, and even then only with her authority. Lady Time looked towards the other members of the Council of Fates, who looked just as dumbstruck as she was, from their reactions she could tell that they had nothing to do with it.

The only others who had the power to rearrange time were Comfort and Justice, two other council members who were not with them in the Council Chambers, both were involved in what had happened, but neither of them were the perpetrators as they did not know of their powers or that they were fated. Even if they had known of their powers it would not have been them as the events had led to Comfort's death and the shattering of Justice's heart at the death of his partner.

Whoever it was that had been messing around with time was working against the fates and their desires, each of the Fates moving quickly to try and repair what damage was done. The plans of Fate were being disrupted and the perpetrator would feel the wrath of the fates when they found out who they were. The reason that neither Comfort nor Justice knew that they were Fated Ones was because you had told be told in life, Justice had died before the Council had time to recruit him to their side. The fates were unable to welcome him to their side in death as he had been unaware of his role in life, it was for this reason that Lady Time had blessed the Fated One, giving him an immortal human life in addition to his eternal life as Lord Justice of the Fates.

The reason that they had not made contact with Justice after his resurrection was due to his uneasiness and wariness of his new situation. It wasn't until Comfort came into his life and he had found out some of the circumstances surrounding his resurrection that he began to accept what he was. The Fates had recognised Comfort as one of them as well as Justice's soul mate, but had decided not to summon them until they were further into their relationship and the bond between them stabilised. Now Comfort was dead.

The Fates knew what would happen to Justice if he lost Comfort for good, the consequences would not be good for anyone, whoever it was that was playing tricks on the Fates would regret it. The fact that Comfort was dead was also problematic as he was not informed his role as Lord Comfort of the Fates and as such is unable to take up the mantle.

Knowing that Justice needed Comfort and that they themselves needed Comfort on the Council they had no choice but to give him back life, Lady Time entwining his life force with that of Justice so that when Justice died his final death so to would comfort. Any deaths either of them experienced would be a singular experience until Justice's last death at which point they would join the Council and spend eternity together.

Due to the events that surrounded Comfort's death his resurrection would be different than Justice's had been, the Fates had left the explanation of what had happened to him to another, but Comfort would be given the knowledge of what had happened to him as well as all the knowledge the Fates had on the current problem.

Normally when one dies they would meet only with death, in certain situations they would meet other members of the Fates, however this situation was different, Comfort as a Fated One would have met the whole Council anyway but as he was being sent back to life being brought in front of the Council was unheard of, when Justice died he never even met death as he was sent straight back to life, only ever seeing the blackness of the waiting room.

When Lord Death brought Comfort into the Council Chambers the other Fates were all seated next to their partners, Lady Destiny and Lord War, Lady Time and Lord Love, Lady Faith and Lady Chance, Lord Death then took his seat next to his partner Lady Vengeance. Knowing that they did not have much time, they introduced themselves before explaining to Comfort what was happening.

They explain who they are, and how the situation that he was recently involved in was not of their making, how someone else was behind it all and was trying to blindside the Fates. They then explained the longevity he was about to gain to his life, before they released him back to life their parting words, "Good luck, Fated One. We will meet again, Comfort.", ringing in his ears.

The Fates watched in silence as Justice came back to life, moving to join his teammate at Comfort's side, both letting out shocked gasps as he let out a breath and sat up.

"Ianto." Justice gasped out, reaching for Comfort touching him to make sure that he was really alive and that he wasn't imagining things.

Comfort smiled, "I'm here Jack. I'm fine, I promise." He continued to reassure Jack while he thought through all the information the Fates had given him.

Gwen just stared at him in shock before launching herself at him, trying to hug the life out of him. When her hold became too much he asked to be released, telling her that they didn't have much time and they needed to work out what is really happening.

At that the other two looked at him confused, both sure that they already understood the situation. Deciding to just speak, not allowing either of the others to contradict him, he blurted out. "This is all wrong, it wasn't meant to happen. Someone is going against the Fates."

Gwen just looked confused, but Jack gasped, a shocked look crossing over his face. "The Fates." He whispered, "You met them?"

Ianto just nodded, "They said that this wasn't to happen and that someone had been playing with time. They said something about tying my life to yours, or something like that, then they sent me back."

Jack stared wide eyed at Ianto, wondering if the Fates had really given him something he would never ask for, someone to stay with him and love him throughout his immortal life. He also started to think about how someone could blindside the Fates, they were after all the Fates. "Did they say anything else?" he asked almost desperately trying to find out any more information he could.

Ianto repeated their final words to him, a look of shock crossing Jack's face, "Fated One. Comfort. Oh God."

Both Ianto and Gwen stared at each other in confusion before turning to jack. " What? Jack what is it?" Ianto almost begged.

"You're Fated. You'll become one of the Council." Jack almost whispered, irreverence could be heard in his voice.

Gwen had had enough of being confused, letting out a frustrated growl she spoke, "What are you talking about Jack? Who or what are the fates and how is Ianto one of them?"

With a shaky voice Jack spoke, "We were taught about them in school, it's like religion, there is a council, the Council of Fates that rule and guide the universe. Sometimes, when a person has an attribute or something that the Fates feel is necessary on their council, they are known as a Fated One, and will join the Council on their death."

Gwen didn't believe what was being said for a minute and begin to argue with Jack over it, Ianto trying to stop the argument form going any further cut in. "Jack, Lady Time said that someone had being playing with time, the Fates stopped watching for a second and four days past. I remember a device from the archives at Torchwood One that was described as a time manipulator, it was purple and gold and sort of triangular I think, was it sent to Torchwood House."

Jack stopped and thought of all the technology that they recovered from the archives at Canary Wharf, "No, all teach was shipped to Cardiff, if it wasn't in our archives then Torchwood doesn't have it. Archie left me to deal with the consequences of London, preferring to stay up in Glasgow."

"Who else was there?" Ianto asked, having left the tower as soon as he possibly could with Lisa he was unaware what forces were brought in for the cleanup.

"UNIT and MI5." Jack answered a scowl crossing his face, "Which means that MI5 and the government are behind this, not just the bombing of our base."

"Why?" Gwen questioned, "Why MI5 and not UNIT?"

"When I first got caught up with Torchwood, I made sure that all the anti-alien agencies knew of the Fates and the consequences of going against them. UNIT wouldn't risk their wrath. While the government knows of the Fates, they are really just elected officials, each one passes and the knowledge of the dangers fades a bit. It's the government." Jack spoke.

"So what do we do? It will be suspicious if Gwen stays in here any longer, you as well, they would have expected you to have come back by now." Ianto asked.

"He's right." Gwen answered, "We really need to get moving."

They quickly came up with a plan, in which Gwen and Jack would leave the room, they knew that the government would try to lock Jack up, most likely for treason. He would ask for Gwen and Rhys to be taken back to Cardiff, and they would try to protect Ianto's family, while Ianto would break Jack out of wherever he was held, having the advantage of none of them knowing he was alive.

The plan went off without a hitch and before they knew it Jack and Ianto were making their way back to where the government were making their plans to deal with the aliens. "Why are you so quiet? What have you worked out?" Ianto asked.

"The device you mentioned, I've seen one before, during my time with the Time Agency. They can only be operated by the species that created them, the race of Rackhams, which means that there must be a Rackham in our government somewhere." Jack explained.

Ianto let out a groan before speaking, "That's it. After this is all over, we're sitting down with UNIT and drafted new laws that mean every member of government local or not is tested yearly to make sure they are human. I've had it with alien politicians."

Jack let out a laugh, "They are also adept in mind control, which is how they are using the children. The 456 are a front I'd say, it's aliens faking aliens again, the only reason I can think of with it being Rackhams is that the children will be sold into slavery. They are using our own sordid history against us as a way to collect a stock for their next auction or trade, they killed Clem to make us believe the 456 were clearing up their mistakes, most likely by control his mind and self-destructing it, using his own mind against him."

Ianto felt sick at the idea of what the Rackham had done, and would be planning to do with a tenth of the Earth's children. "How will we know who it is?" he asked hoping that it would be semi-easy to uncover who was behind all of this.

"If I'm right about it being a slave trade they want the children for, then they won't want to have the Fates interfere, so will have the device set to hold until they had taken the children. You being a Fated One meant that your death alerted the Fates to the problem, my guess is that Lady Time will have once again taken control. The Rackham won't know that though and will have the device on them, we just have to find out who has the device." Jack replied.

Finding the Rackham wasn't that hard, it turned out that he had easily taken the place of the Prime Minister, using mind control over the whole populace to see him as a human and not in his natural form. Once you're aware of mind control on your person it's easier to fight against it, so they were able to see the Prime Minister for what he really was, showing him for who and what he was to the Cabinet was a bit harder, but accomplishable.

Once the Cabinet had vacated the room Jack turned to the Rackham, "It's not my job to decide your punishment, that lies with the Fates alone for your interference. But I can make sure that your judgement and punishment is taken care of as soon as possible."

He then took out his gun and shot the alien masquerading as the Prime Minister, "That's for what you put so many parents through."

A quick call had UNIT dealing with the cleanup, and arranged a UNIT team to keep an eye on the rift for the next month whilst Torchwood tried to rebuild. They also commandeered a helicopter to get back to Cardiff after picking up Alice and Steven. Jack was going home with his daughter and grandson and Ianto was going to check on his family and make sure they were alright, they had agreed to meet up at Ianto's flat later.

Six months later, Torchwood was up and running again properly, with the help of UNIT they had gone through the rubble of the Hub, salvaging everything that they could before they began the rebuilding. Myfanwy had been found hiding out in the warehouse that Jack and Ianto had found her in originally, and Martha Milligan nee Jones and Mickey Smith had joined the team, with Andy Davidson working as their liaison with the police.

Jack and Ianto had just entered their flat when they saw something out of place on the living room table. Both grabbed their guns and did a quick sweep of the flat before returning to the living room, picking up the letter that hadn't been there before. It was a plain parchment type envelope, the words Jack and Ianto Harkness-Jones written on the front.

Opening the envelope they found a letter from the Fates requesting their presence, and telling them that someone would be sent to collect them the next day. They just looked at each other before shrugging, they knew that Ianto was a Fated One due to the events six months ago, but would not join the Council until he died. They wondered what it was that the Council wanted to see them for, but they knew that would come would come and all they could do was wait and meet it when it did.