Title: Royal Audience
By: lilithangel
Pairings: mild Ianto/Owen
Rating: PG
Series: 1) Queen of the Weevils
A/N: this is obviously going AU since we don’t know what has happened after 2.06 Reset and I doubt that my interpretation is anywhere near.
Summary: Set after Queen of the Weevils. The rest of the team find out what’s happened.

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“Tosh, anything yet?” Jack’s voice was urgent with worry.

“Nothing since Ianto’s signal went offline.” Tosh’s voice mirrored Jack’s worry.

“Gwen, any Weevil sign at all?” Jack said.

“Nothing, sorry Jack,” Gwen said from the city centre, “it’s like they’ve all dropped off the face of the earth.”

“They’ve got to be somewhere and I’m afraid they’re our only link to what’s happened to Ianto and Owen.” Jack thumped the wheel of the SUV in frustration.

“We’ll find them somehow,” Martha said to Jack.

“It’s my fault,” Jack said in despair, “I failed Owen and now I’ve failed Ianto. What the hell is going on?”

“We’ll find them and we’ll fix this,” Martha said, “We’re the end of the world survivors remember? We’ve handled worse.”

“Yeah, we have,” Jack said, “but this is my team, my responsibility and it was my actions that started this. There’s one last place to check, we’re going to have to go underground.”

“Cardiff doesn’t have an Underground does it?”

“It was in the plans but never got further than the old train tunnel that the Hub is a part of. The Weevils use the sewers as their own personal Underground.”

“Oh lovely,” Martha screwed her face up.

“End of the world survivors, we’ve handled worse.” Jack threw her words back at her with a grin. “You don’t have to come with me,” he said. “You’ve completed your assignment here.”

“Don’t think I’m leaving now mister.” Martha glared at him.

Jack grinned and grabbed her hand. “Alright then Miss Martha Jones, would you care to accompany me down into the sewers?”

“Why Captain Harkness, I would be honoured,” Martha said with a matching grin.

Several times Jack was certain there were Weevils following them through the tunnels, but every time he looked around there was nothing. It was not normal behaviour if they were following but there really was very little normal about recent events, even for Torchwood.

Slowly the Weevils made their presence known and Jack realised they were being herded. There were dozens of Weevil watching them from the shadows now. It was unnerving how quiet they were, how controlled.

Martha was coping well, but she had never seen a Weevil attack and didn’t really understand the threat posed. Not that Jack was turning back. Ianto was missing and it was Jack’s fault that Owen was what he was. Jack was determined to fix it and save them both.

The tunnel opened out into a larger space filled with Weevils. At the far end they saw Owen and Ianto sitting on two stone chairs. Neither looked restrained or frightened, in fact Owen was sprawled comfortably in his chair and Jack quickly noticed that he was holding Ianto’s hand and Ianto was letting him.

Standing in front of them were Tosh and Gwen, both looking equal parts worried and annoyed.

“Jack, Martha,” Owen said expansively, “good to see you both, come and join the party.”

“Owen, what’s going on?” Jack said advancing on the two men. He stopped when several Weevils began to growl and stood next to the girls.

Owen growled back and the Weevils stood down. “Sorry about that,” he said, “they’re quite protective.”

“Of you?” Jack raised an eyebrow.

“Of their King and Consort.” Owen tightened his grip on Ianto’s hand.

“Their what?” Tosh gasped in surprise.

“King and Consort,” Ianto repeated with a small smile.

“You have got to be kidding,” Gwen said.

“Nope,” Owen replied, “the Weevils made me their king, thanks to Jack and to me getting into that cage. I’ve made Ianto my consort, with his consent,” Owen added before Jack could say anything.

“Ianto?” Jack looked at Ianto in confusion.

“We were having fun Jack, but it wasn’t going anywhere,” Ianto said, “Owen needed me more.”

“Owen,” Martha spoke up, “we can fix this… you just need to come back to the Hub with us.”

“What if I don’t want to be fixed?” Owen said, “what if I like what I am?”

“Are you sure?” Jack asked both of them.

“We can do a lot of good here,” Owen said, “Ianto’s already teaching them to clean up after themselves, and I’ll keep them from killing people which will make your job easier.”

“This is wrong,” Gwen said.

“What’s wrong about it?” Ianto challenged her.

“You and Owen for starters,” Gwen said, “the whole king of the Weevils weirdness second.”

“Weirder than Jack bringing me back to life?” Owen said.

“Why is that weird?” Jack wanted to know.

“Me,” Owen said bluntly, “you didn’t try it for Suzie or any of the victims we’ve encountered, just me.”

“You really don’t know why?” Jack grinned crookedly, the grin slipped off at Owen’s obvious puzzlement. “You’re one of my team; you stepped in front of a bullet for Martha. You didn’t deserve to die when I should have saved you.”

“Did I deserve this, Jack?” Owen asked softly, his eyes haunted. Ianto squeezed his hand and he smiled.

“Jack, we have to do something,” Gwen said urgently.

“Like what?” Jack asked looking around at the hordes of Weevils watching them intently.

“Bring them to their senses,” Tosh said.

“We’re in our right minds Tosh,” Ianto said firmly, “it might seem strange but it isn’t. We can do some good here.”

“What about the rest of the team?” Tosh asked, “You were doing good with us.”

“This is my place now,” Owen said.

“And my place is with Owen,” Ianto added.

“When did this happen?” Gwen demanded.

“I think it was always there but others were always in the way,” Owen answered, “it took dying to make me decide to seize the day and take what I wanted.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Jack said, his eyes narrowing, “Ianto isn’t something you can just take.”

“He didn’t have to, Jack,” Ianto said firmly, “trust me, I want this.”

Jack stared at Ianto intently and then nodded. “Will you be able to be reached if we need you, either of you?”

“You can’t do this, Jack,” Gwen protested.

“They’ve made their choice,” Jack said, “We can’t force them to return.”

“Jack…” Tosh said pleadingly and Jack shook his head. This wasn’t something he could fix and he wasn’t sure he wanted to.

“We’ll help when we can,” Owen said, “get us some phones to replace the ones I broke,” he added sheepishly.

Jack nodded and led the shell-shocked women away.

“Jack,” Ianto called out. He shared a quick glance with Owen who nodded. “Perhaps you should bring the phones to us on your own.” He stared intently at Jack. “We can show you around the place, show you what we can do.”

Jack stared back just as intently, “Oh? Oh…” he grinned, “that’s a date.”

Jack turned back before the Weevils closed in behind him and caught a glimpse of Owen pulling Ianto over for a kiss. Damn straight he was bringing the phones back on his own. He was pretty sure things would be even more innovative with two of them.

END

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