Easy Way Out
Aug. 28th, 2007 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laliginFandom: Torchwood (shock horror!)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 1870
Summary: Jack and Ianto are on the hunt for the other half of an alien object. But that leads to a few unexpected places, at least for Cardiff...
Prompt: Jantolution Challenge #6, Prompts - Action/Adventure, Cardiff Castle, Alea Iacta Est.
A/N: Another sequel, this time to As If By Magic (and yes, you will need to have read that one...) which I wrote for the fifth Jantolution challenge, just last month. :) Much quicker on this one. ;) Again, a fair few of you clamoured for more, and so, ask and ye shall receive...
Oh, and please take note! I'm now officially gone to Dragon*Con! And I won't be back until the 7th September, so forgive me for taking that long to reply to your comments. ;) (Back now, though. And it was brilliant. ;) )
Easy Way Out
“We’re in the castle grounds,” Jack told Tosh over the comm, though neither he nor Ianto doubted that she already knew.
“The device is still pulling,” Ianto added, looking down at the half-sphere he was holding. “But it’s aiming down as well as forward. I think the other half might be under the castle, rather than in it.”
“That’ll make things difficult,” Jack said, glancing at Ianto. “Unless…”
“No,” Ianto told him flatly, wishing he’d never told Jack about his powers.
Sounding faintly confused, Tosh asked them, “Unless what? Jack, tell me you weren’t thinking about blowing up the castle.”
Grinning at Ianto now, Jack repeated back to her, “I wasn’t thinking about blowing up the castle,” deliberately making it sing-song just to hear her sigh in exasperation.
“How are Gwen and Owen managing the Ryllan?” Ianto asked, knowing that Jack wouldn’t press him to use magic if the others were in view.
“No luck yet,” Tosh told him, much to his disappointment. “They’ll probably be another hour at least.”
“Up to us, then,” Jack told Ianto, giving him pointed looks, and Ianto sighed, but knelt down on one knee and pulled his trouser leg up so he could retrieve the wand strapped to his calf. Jack was grinning when he stood up, and Ianto just rolled his eyes and muttered the appropriate incantation.
There was a slight flare off to their right, and they headed over, Jack crouching and running his hand over the grass, not far from the mound on which the castle keep sat.
“Definitely something here,” he told Ianto. “But somehow I doubt I can get it open. Care to give it a go?”
Ianto sighed, glancing back at the open green behind them, making sure that no-one was watching too closely as he crouched beside Jack and mumbled another spell. A circle about the size of a manhole cover tilted in the grass, and Jack caught the edges to haul it out so Ianto could investigate the descent it revealed. There seemed to be a ladder, and at Jack’s nod Ianto started climbing down, pocketing the half-sphere and carefully holding his wand between his teeth. Jack followed him, pulling the cover back into place just as Ianto reached the bottom of the shaft, plunging them into total darkness.
“A little light would be helpful,” Jack called down, and Ianto sighed, feeling very put-upon, but obligingly summoned light from the wand.
“Thanks,” Jack grinned as he jumped the last couple of feet of the ladder. “Which way now?”
Ianto raised the wand to look around, bearing the tug of the half-sphere in mind, but the tunnel they’d entered only went one way. He and Jack exchanged shrugs, and started down the passage.
Following the downwards slope of the twisting tunnels, and choosing between passageways by using a combination of the half-sphere, guesswork, and a little magic when they came to junctions, they walked for almost fifteen minutes without coming across anything of interest. At last, they reached one sharp, right-angled turn in the tunnel, and saw writing inscribed on the wall facing them.
Increasing the light from the wand, Ianto stepped closer to investigate it more closely, then told Jack, “It’s Latin. These tunnels must be from the Roman era of the site.”
“Unless someone just decided to carve a message in them later,” Jack pointed out, and Ianto nodded, too busy translating the message to bother replying.
After another couple of moments, he informed Jack, “It says, ‘The Rubicon lies before you. Be certain before you proceed.’”
“The Rubicon?” asked Jack. “Isn’t that a river?”
“I think it’s probably metaphorical,” Ianto said. “Crossing the Rubicon is a common phrase for going beyond the point of no return.”
“Well,” Jack said, wrapping his arms around Ianto’s waist from behind, “do we go on, then?”
Refusing to be distracted, Ianto held the wand closer to the wall, saying, “There’s another line of text here. It’s fainter than the others.”
“Mm?” Jack asked, apparently finding Ianto’s neck intensely fascinating all of a sudden. “Well, while it’s just the two of us, can it wait for just a minute? I haven’t had you to myself all day, and warnings about a point of no return usually mean very little time to stop and enjoy the company.”
The wand light flickered, and Ianto could feel himself blushing. From the way Jack was grinning against his neck, he could probably feel it too.
“We’ve got work to do,” he reminded Jack firmly, and Jack murmured, “That’s never stopped us before.”
“Fair point,” Ianto conceded, and turned to kiss him.
“Jack! Ianto! Can you even hear me?!”
Simultaneously, Jack and Ianto both yanked their headsets off, wincing at Tosh’s shout. Jack was first to put his headset back on, cautiously, asking, “What was that for?” while Ianto sighed and turned back to the Latin inscription.
“Where are you?” Tosh asked frantically. “Your GPS disappeared, and I couldn’t contact you! I’ve boosted the signal, but you’re still not showing up anywhere.”
“We’re in the tunnels under the castle,” Jack told her cheerfully. “Sorry, thought you were still following us.”
“Where’s the entrance? I’m sending Gwen and Owen over as backup.”
Jack hesitated, glancing at Ianto, who shook his head firmly. Accordingly, Jack told Tosh, “Don’t bother. They won’t be able to find the entrance, for one thing. Ianto and I can manage.”
“But –” Tosh started to protest, and Jack cut her off, saying, “Make sure Gwen and Owen get that Ryllan back to the cells. If we need anything, we’ll be in touch.”
“Oh, fine,” Tosh sighed, and the comms went quiet again.
Jack turned back to Ianto, hands automatically reaching out to pick up where they’d left off, but Ianto said calmly, “The final line is just a warning to thieves. Nothing to worry about,” and started down the tunnel again. He paused after a moment, looking back and raising the wand to see Jack, smiling at his pout and telling him, “Come on. It’s this way.”
The tunnel curved gently to the right for a while, then straightened out before another ninety-degree turn, this time to the left. Taking this, they’d gone three steps before there was a sudden bang behind them, and they whirled around to find that a slab had fallen down to block the tunnel. Cursing, Jack dashed back to run his fingers around the edges, finding that the slab fitted smoothly into grooves in the walls and floor, and there was no way he could gain enough purchase to lift it, even if he had been strong enough.
“Ianto, can you do something about this?” he asked quickly, but Ianto said, “I’ve already tried. It’s blocked above somehow, and if I can’t see the mechanism, I don’t know how to reverse it.”
Turning back to Ianto, Jack opened his mouth to say something else, then paused, said, “Shit. Tosh,” instead, and tried his headset. There was no answer.
“She’s not going to be happy with us,” Ianto sighed. “Dropping out of contact twice in one mission?”
Jack winced, considering that, and then shrugged and said, “Well, I guess we go on. This is a fairly conclusive point of no return, after all.”
Nodding, Ianto commented, “We can’t be far,” aware that the half-sphere was beginning to pull more strongly.
They went on, staying close together in case of other traps that could separate them. So when Jack saw the ground ahead of them suddenly vanish in darkness, he grabbed the back of Ianto’s jacket and hauled him back from the edge of the precipice.
“That was quite unnecessary,” Ianto told him after a moment, and Jack said, “Just making sure you’d seen it.”
“Well, now we’ve got that matter cleared up, I’m sure it’s safe for you to let go of me,” Ianto said calmly, and Jack sheepishly released him.
Ianto straightened his jacket and walked back over to the edge, raising the wand and increasing the amount of light it was giving off. Looking down, he couldn’t see the bottom of the pit, but on the left tunnel wall, he could see a ledge by which they could cross.
Jack looked down at the pit as well, and said, “Whoever made these tunnels really had too much time on their hands.”
Nodding vaguely, Ianto pointed out the ledge, and Jack gave him a look that clearly expressed his feelings on the matter.
“Can’t you just magic us across?” he asked, and Ianto smiled patiently.
“It doesn’t work like that. I can’t levitate us, and I have no idea how far the other side is, so I can’t just zap us straight there. We’ll have to take the slow route.”
Reluctantly, Jack let Ianto edge across first, half-sphere in his pocket and wand gripped between his teeth again. They made it across without incident, managing to avoid even a slip on the narrow ledge, and then finally stepping out into the tunnel again, and continuing onward.
Three more turns and they suddenly found themselves in a cavern, surrounded by piles of gold and jewels.
“Cliché,” muttered Jack, but Ianto was frozen in place, staring.
“It’s just treasure,” Jack said nonchalantly, and Ianto glared at him.
“Just treasure? Do you have any idea how much this is worth? God, museums would kill to get their hands on this…”
“Yeah, museums were my first thought too,” Jack agreed, straight faced, then grinned at Ianto and said, “You can zap it out of here after we’ve got the alien device, okay?”
Sighing, Ianto nodded, and dug the half-sphere from his pocket to follow the pull through the room to an archway and another, much smaller, chamber. He and Jack entered cautiously, then spotted the second half of the sphere on a pedestal in front of them, and went forward. Jack reached out to take it, but Ianto grabbed his wrist, saying (in near disbelief), “Haven’t you seen Raiders of the Lost Ark?”
“No,” Jack said, and picked up the half-sphere with his other hand.
Nothing happened.
Ianto let go of Jack’s wrist, shaking his head, and Jack smiled at him, taking the other half of the sphere from him and joining the two together. The silver globe clicked into place, flared with green light briefly, and then became dormant when Jack pushed the top and bottom in slightly. That done, he gave the now complete sphere back to Ianto, and they turned to leave.
Another slab slammed down over the archway.
“This is all your fault,” Ianto told Jack calmly, as sections of the wall, eight feet or so off the ground, opened up and let loose a flood of sand into the room.
“Oops?” Jack said, as Ianto reached over to shove the sphere into Jack’s coat pocket, then grabbed his hand as the sand swiftly reached knee level, and waved his wand.
With a crack, they appeared in Jack’s quarters back at the Hub, with a small cascade of sand. Ianto glared at Jack and sat down on the bed to take his shoes and socks off and shake out the rest of the sand he’d picked up.
“Next time,” he said flatly, “you listen to me.”
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 1870
Summary: Jack and Ianto are on the hunt for the other half of an alien object. But that leads to a few unexpected places, at least for Cardiff...
Prompt: Jantolution Challenge #6, Prompts - Action/Adventure, Cardiff Castle, Alea Iacta Est.
A/N: Another sequel, this time to As If By Magic (and yes, you will need to have read that one...) which I wrote for the fifth Jantolution challenge, just last month. :) Much quicker on this one. ;) Again, a fair few of you clamoured for more, and so, ask and ye shall receive...
Oh, and please take note! I'm now officially gone to Dragon*Con! And I won't be back until the 7th September, so forgive me for taking that long to reply to your comments. ;) (Back now, though. And it was brilliant. ;) )
Easy Way Out
“We’re in the castle grounds,” Jack told Tosh over the comm, though neither he nor Ianto doubted that she already knew.
“The device is still pulling,” Ianto added, looking down at the half-sphere he was holding. “But it’s aiming down as well as forward. I think the other half might be under the castle, rather than in it.”
“That’ll make things difficult,” Jack said, glancing at Ianto. “Unless…”
“No,” Ianto told him flatly, wishing he’d never told Jack about his powers.
Sounding faintly confused, Tosh asked them, “Unless what? Jack, tell me you weren’t thinking about blowing up the castle.”
Grinning at Ianto now, Jack repeated back to her, “I wasn’t thinking about blowing up the castle,” deliberately making it sing-song just to hear her sigh in exasperation.
“How are Gwen and Owen managing the Ryllan?” Ianto asked, knowing that Jack wouldn’t press him to use magic if the others were in view.
“No luck yet,” Tosh told him, much to his disappointment. “They’ll probably be another hour at least.”
“Up to us, then,” Jack told Ianto, giving him pointed looks, and Ianto sighed, but knelt down on one knee and pulled his trouser leg up so he could retrieve the wand strapped to his calf. Jack was grinning when he stood up, and Ianto just rolled his eyes and muttered the appropriate incantation.
There was a slight flare off to their right, and they headed over, Jack crouching and running his hand over the grass, not far from the mound on which the castle keep sat.
“Definitely something here,” he told Ianto. “But somehow I doubt I can get it open. Care to give it a go?”
Ianto sighed, glancing back at the open green behind them, making sure that no-one was watching too closely as he crouched beside Jack and mumbled another spell. A circle about the size of a manhole cover tilted in the grass, and Jack caught the edges to haul it out so Ianto could investigate the descent it revealed. There seemed to be a ladder, and at Jack’s nod Ianto started climbing down, pocketing the half-sphere and carefully holding his wand between his teeth. Jack followed him, pulling the cover back into place just as Ianto reached the bottom of the shaft, plunging them into total darkness.
“A little light would be helpful,” Jack called down, and Ianto sighed, feeling very put-upon, but obligingly summoned light from the wand.
“Thanks,” Jack grinned as he jumped the last couple of feet of the ladder. “Which way now?”
Ianto raised the wand to look around, bearing the tug of the half-sphere in mind, but the tunnel they’d entered only went one way. He and Jack exchanged shrugs, and started down the passage.
Following the downwards slope of the twisting tunnels, and choosing between passageways by using a combination of the half-sphere, guesswork, and a little magic when they came to junctions, they walked for almost fifteen minutes without coming across anything of interest. At last, they reached one sharp, right-angled turn in the tunnel, and saw writing inscribed on the wall facing them.
Increasing the light from the wand, Ianto stepped closer to investigate it more closely, then told Jack, “It’s Latin. These tunnels must be from the Roman era of the site.”
“Unless someone just decided to carve a message in them later,” Jack pointed out, and Ianto nodded, too busy translating the message to bother replying.
After another couple of moments, he informed Jack, “It says, ‘The Rubicon lies before you. Be certain before you proceed.’”
“The Rubicon?” asked Jack. “Isn’t that a river?”
“I think it’s probably metaphorical,” Ianto said. “Crossing the Rubicon is a common phrase for going beyond the point of no return.”
“Well,” Jack said, wrapping his arms around Ianto’s waist from behind, “do we go on, then?”
Refusing to be distracted, Ianto held the wand closer to the wall, saying, “There’s another line of text here. It’s fainter than the others.”
“Mm?” Jack asked, apparently finding Ianto’s neck intensely fascinating all of a sudden. “Well, while it’s just the two of us, can it wait for just a minute? I haven’t had you to myself all day, and warnings about a point of no return usually mean very little time to stop and enjoy the company.”
The wand light flickered, and Ianto could feel himself blushing. From the way Jack was grinning against his neck, he could probably feel it too.
“We’ve got work to do,” he reminded Jack firmly, and Jack murmured, “That’s never stopped us before.”
“Fair point,” Ianto conceded, and turned to kiss him.
“Jack! Ianto! Can you even hear me?!”
Simultaneously, Jack and Ianto both yanked their headsets off, wincing at Tosh’s shout. Jack was first to put his headset back on, cautiously, asking, “What was that for?” while Ianto sighed and turned back to the Latin inscription.
“Where are you?” Tosh asked frantically. “Your GPS disappeared, and I couldn’t contact you! I’ve boosted the signal, but you’re still not showing up anywhere.”
“We’re in the tunnels under the castle,” Jack told her cheerfully. “Sorry, thought you were still following us.”
“Where’s the entrance? I’m sending Gwen and Owen over as backup.”
Jack hesitated, glancing at Ianto, who shook his head firmly. Accordingly, Jack told Tosh, “Don’t bother. They won’t be able to find the entrance, for one thing. Ianto and I can manage.”
“But –” Tosh started to protest, and Jack cut her off, saying, “Make sure Gwen and Owen get that Ryllan back to the cells. If we need anything, we’ll be in touch.”
“Oh, fine,” Tosh sighed, and the comms went quiet again.
Jack turned back to Ianto, hands automatically reaching out to pick up where they’d left off, but Ianto said calmly, “The final line is just a warning to thieves. Nothing to worry about,” and started down the tunnel again. He paused after a moment, looking back and raising the wand to see Jack, smiling at his pout and telling him, “Come on. It’s this way.”
The tunnel curved gently to the right for a while, then straightened out before another ninety-degree turn, this time to the left. Taking this, they’d gone three steps before there was a sudden bang behind them, and they whirled around to find that a slab had fallen down to block the tunnel. Cursing, Jack dashed back to run his fingers around the edges, finding that the slab fitted smoothly into grooves in the walls and floor, and there was no way he could gain enough purchase to lift it, even if he had been strong enough.
“Ianto, can you do something about this?” he asked quickly, but Ianto said, “I’ve already tried. It’s blocked above somehow, and if I can’t see the mechanism, I don’t know how to reverse it.”
Turning back to Ianto, Jack opened his mouth to say something else, then paused, said, “Shit. Tosh,” instead, and tried his headset. There was no answer.
“She’s not going to be happy with us,” Ianto sighed. “Dropping out of contact twice in one mission?”
Jack winced, considering that, and then shrugged and said, “Well, I guess we go on. This is a fairly conclusive point of no return, after all.”
Nodding, Ianto commented, “We can’t be far,” aware that the half-sphere was beginning to pull more strongly.
They went on, staying close together in case of other traps that could separate them. So when Jack saw the ground ahead of them suddenly vanish in darkness, he grabbed the back of Ianto’s jacket and hauled him back from the edge of the precipice.
“That was quite unnecessary,” Ianto told him after a moment, and Jack said, “Just making sure you’d seen it.”
“Well, now we’ve got that matter cleared up, I’m sure it’s safe for you to let go of me,” Ianto said calmly, and Jack sheepishly released him.
Ianto straightened his jacket and walked back over to the edge, raising the wand and increasing the amount of light it was giving off. Looking down, he couldn’t see the bottom of the pit, but on the left tunnel wall, he could see a ledge by which they could cross.
Jack looked down at the pit as well, and said, “Whoever made these tunnels really had too much time on their hands.”
Nodding vaguely, Ianto pointed out the ledge, and Jack gave him a look that clearly expressed his feelings on the matter.
“Can’t you just magic us across?” he asked, and Ianto smiled patiently.
“It doesn’t work like that. I can’t levitate us, and I have no idea how far the other side is, so I can’t just zap us straight there. We’ll have to take the slow route.”
Reluctantly, Jack let Ianto edge across first, half-sphere in his pocket and wand gripped between his teeth again. They made it across without incident, managing to avoid even a slip on the narrow ledge, and then finally stepping out into the tunnel again, and continuing onward.
Three more turns and they suddenly found themselves in a cavern, surrounded by piles of gold and jewels.
“Cliché,” muttered Jack, but Ianto was frozen in place, staring.
“It’s just treasure,” Jack said nonchalantly, and Ianto glared at him.
“Just treasure? Do you have any idea how much this is worth? God, museums would kill to get their hands on this…”
“Yeah, museums were my first thought too,” Jack agreed, straight faced, then grinned at Ianto and said, “You can zap it out of here after we’ve got the alien device, okay?”
Sighing, Ianto nodded, and dug the half-sphere from his pocket to follow the pull through the room to an archway and another, much smaller, chamber. He and Jack entered cautiously, then spotted the second half of the sphere on a pedestal in front of them, and went forward. Jack reached out to take it, but Ianto grabbed his wrist, saying (in near disbelief), “Haven’t you seen Raiders of the Lost Ark?”
“No,” Jack said, and picked up the half-sphere with his other hand.
Nothing happened.
Ianto let go of Jack’s wrist, shaking his head, and Jack smiled at him, taking the other half of the sphere from him and joining the two together. The silver globe clicked into place, flared with green light briefly, and then became dormant when Jack pushed the top and bottom in slightly. That done, he gave the now complete sphere back to Ianto, and they turned to leave.
Another slab slammed down over the archway.
“This is all your fault,” Ianto told Jack calmly, as sections of the wall, eight feet or so off the ground, opened up and let loose a flood of sand into the room.
“Oops?” Jack said, as Ianto reached over to shove the sphere into Jack’s coat pocket, then grabbed his hand as the sand swiftly reached knee level, and waved his wand.
With a crack, they appeared in Jack’s quarters back at the Hub, with a small cascade of sand. Ianto glared at Jack and sat down on the bed to take his shoes and socks off and shake out the rest of the sand he’d picked up.
“Next time,” he said flatly, “you listen to me.”
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-28 07:32 pm (UTC)Me liked :)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-28 07:40 pm (UTC)Thank you, I'm glad you liked it!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-28 08:45 pm (UTC)Loved it.
(i'd like to see what Tosh would say on the matter of losing contact twice)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-09 07:50 pm (UTC):) Very glad you enjoyed it. I'll probably keep playing in this AU every now and again, no doubt with Jantolution challenges. ;) Thanks!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-28 10:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-09 07:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2007-08-29 10:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-09 08:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-30 07:28 am (UTC)Of course, now I would love to see Ianto doing some magical ass-kicking and leaving Jack speechless. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-09 08:42 pm (UTC):D Magic!Ianto is even more of a tough cookie than normal Ianto. Jack's in for quite a surprise. ;) Glad you liked it, thanke!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-17 07:11 pm (UTC)We have to set up some kind of party for us TW people next year.....it would be cool to all hang out one night and spend it squeeing over the show.
BTW...excellent fics....found my way here via
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-17 10:22 pm (UTC)Yes indeedy. Anything Torchwood and I'm there. :D
And thank you very much. ^_^
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-18 12:05 am (UTC)Yeah, being a director, you miss out on a lot.....I say we have a Torchwood slumber party next year.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-18 04:37 pm (UTC)Do you know about
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