Chapter 15

The ship took off with a gust of wind, only Ianto on board. "Oi!" yelled the Doctor, as if Ianto could hear him, "at least tell me your plan first!"

"Is that what you would do, Doctor?" the Face of Boe asked, amused

"Well," the Doctor gestured sheepishly, "well, no, I'd fly off without a word of warning. But that's only because I'm me! Most people I travel with don't usually go off on their own…Well that's not entirely true, but they don't steal spaceships, that's where I draw the line!"

…

Ianto could not, in fact, hear him, he was far too busy saving the day. At least, that's what he set out to do. But now that his plan was to be put into action, there were a few slight problems arising. Ianto had planned to find the key structural weaknesses in the building and use the ship to fill them with steel and concrete, but the ship no longer had the power to do so. The vaporisation of the Janos plant had obviously taken its toll. So as Ianto sat there staring at the large flashing red structural weakness of the building, he realised he did have something that could plug that hole. But it would hurt.

…

The rumbling suddenly got much worse as the sound of breaking stone and scraping metal filled the air. But just so suddenly it stopped all together, and a quick scan of the building showed that the building was now secure. "He did it," the Doctor replied, but he wasn't as pleased

"I told you doctor, you shouldn't underestimate him," the Face of Boe stated smugly

"I never doubted he would, old friend, I'm just slightly concerned as to how" the Doctor had tried to come up with a solution, unlike Ianto he knew the ship was out of power when he left. But just like Ianto he had come to the same conclusion about the best solution. He and Ianto were more similar than he first thought, which was troubling. He could regenerate, but if Ianto got hurt, he wouldn't be so lucky. "I better go find him," he sighed, Ianto had impressed him, but he still had that feeling he has with all of his companions. Like a teacher, corralling unruly children. "Doctor," the Face of Boe spoke softly, "you won't be able to come back"

"What?"

"You have been paying attention my friend, our time is almost up." He was right, the sun was starting to rise. Soon the Doctor's earlier self would be here, Novice Hame had left to find him. "Why didn't you say? Ianto left without really saying"-

"If I had told him, it would have stopped him from saving us," the Face of Boe admitted solemnly, "I spared us all some pain"

"You were being selfish," the Doctor accused, he knew all too well the pain of being unable to say goodbye. This entire journey was in fact his and Ianto's way of saying goodbye to everyone, to time and space itself. "Perhaps," the Face of Boe replied, "I have lived so long, told so many lies, so many goodbyes, sometimes it is hard to tell if I'm being arrogant, or wise."

The Doctor stood there for longer than he should, before turning away. "Goodbye, Jack."

…

Coughing Ianto climbed out of the ship, we was unharmed by the crash but his clothes were torn and covered in dust. As were his lungs it seemed. He couldn't see much, from the sudden light of the sun and the dust and debris in the air we had to be careful not to walk off the edge. It had worked at least, the building was no longer falling down, but the ship was trashed, the only way out now was the TARDIS, and that would be a long-and potentially impossible-walk. After a while he began to see again, and he was amazed by how different it all looked without the warped and deadly vines creeping around everything. He could see the city now, and it looked beautiful in the sunlight. And just when he thought it couldn't get better he began to see movement. Flying ships filled the sky, small car-like vessels. Ianto didn't know where they had come from, the Doctor hadn't filled him in, but the idea that life was returning to this place made him feel alive as well.

Ianto stood for a while catching his breath, taking in the view, but he didn't relax for long, as something all-too-familiar dug into his back. The barrel of a gun. "Don't move," a voice spoke behind him, it was muffled and distorted, the figure was wearing a mask

"Who are you?" Ianto tried to remain calm, he'd been in plenty of situations like this in Torchwood, not that they'd gotten any easier

"It's rude to play with other people's toys you know?" the figure replied, an almost playful tone in their voice, "especially when you break them"

"You're the time agent? The one from that ship?"

"Wow," they replied sarcastically, "nothing gets past you." The agent pushed with his gun, directing Ianto away from the window. "Here I was, investigating how this planet got conquering by a plant when suddenly it springs to life and attacks me. I try to contact my ship but it's been hijacked. So I hide, the plant gets vaporised, but just when I think things are looking up my poor ship crashes into the side of the building. So tell me, who are you?"

"My name is Ianto Jones," he wanted to seem cooperative, but Ianto was already getting ready to take that gun off of the agent. The agent's head tilted oddly, they were curious, "what year is it?"

Shit, "um," they had him, Ianto had no idea

"A time traveller eh? And a rogue one too, seeing as there's no fancy doodads on your wrist. But there were no other ships when I landed, and no others arrived either," they waved their wrist and Ianto recognised the time agent's device, "I would have known, so tell me, how did you get here?"

"Um, time traveller? I'm not a time traveller, I'm just…" Ianto thought fast for a reason why he wouldn't know the year, "very stupid" perfect

"Right, a very stupid person who stole a cloaked time ship, vaporised an evil plant and flew it into a building exactly where it needed to be to keep the building stable. Nice try, sort of. Tell the truth"

"He came with me," the Doctor appeared from around the corner, instantly commanding the room. Ianto was still impressed with how the Doctor could go from bumbling buffoon to frightening genius in a moment. "And who are you supposed to be?" the agent asked, unimpressed

"I'm the Doctor"

"…Okay," the agent replied

"Seriously?" the Doctor became the buffoon again, "you're a time traveller, how do you not know who I am?"

"Look," the time agent got fed up, he removed his mask, "you have wrecked my ship and stranded me here, I'm done playing games, now tell me how you got here, and I'll vaporise this guy." He got ready to fire, but Ianto and the Doctor had frozen, they could believe what they saw and heard. The time agent had removed his mask, they could see his face, they could hear his voice, they just couldn't believe it.

"Jack?"