[#107] What Lies Beyond (Torchwood)

[badly_knitted]

Theme Prompt: #107 – Afterlife
Title: What Lies Beyond
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG / Descriptions of a nasty Jack death.
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Despite all the times Jack has died, he’s never seen anything than a lightless, sensationless no place, but Ianto assures him there’s more.




Anyone who thought being immortal was easy, especially given Jack’s brand of immortality, needed to have their head examined to check whether they’d been short-changed when it came to brains and common sense.

Truthfully, Jack wouldn’t have wished it on his worst enemy, because while he could expect to live until the end of time, and maybe beyond that, he still died, frequently and painfully. He just didn’t stay that way, and the coming back to life part was usually worse than the dying part. Most of the time death came quickly, while the revival part could take quite a while, depending on how much damage needed to be repaired. Returning to the land of the living before he was fully healed was no picnic.

“For a while there I thought I was never going to get back to you,” Jack gasped, still clinging to Ianto’s arm as though it were a life raft in a story sea, using the physical contact to anchor himself as his body continued to regenerate.

“You did though. It’s okay.” Ianto did his best to reassure his lover.

This had been a particularly bad death, half of him had been vaporised by an alien weapon the likes of which he’d never seen before and hoped to never see again. Re-growing the missing parts seemed to take forever, and the process wasn’t complete yet.

“Thought I’d be lost in the dark and nothingness for all eternity.” Jack shuddered; the place he went to when he died was far from pleasant. He’d told Ianto often enough that whenever he died he was always conscious of something stalking him through the endless dark. Even though he couldn’t hear, see, or feel anything, there was always that disturbing sense of not being alone, and if that was all there was after death, he wanted no part of it.

“You wouldn’t have been. Even if you hadn’t come back, there’s more to the afterlife than you ever get to see.”

Jack shook his head, refusing to accept his lover’s reassurances. “You’re wrong. You die, that’s it, just a lot of nothing, and something moving in the dark. I should know; I’ve been there often enough. Suzie saw the same as I did when she died and we brought her back.” It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but at least talking about it took his mind off the agonising, crawling sensations of muscles and skin growing over bones.

“Right, because you’re the sole authority on life after death, and Suzie agreed with you. You’d rather take the word of a seriously unstable serial killer than that of your lover.”

“What are you talking about?”

“When it comes to dying, you’re not the only one who gets to wear the t-shirt. Been there, done that. Remember Thames House, when I died from whatever the 456 released into the atmosphere? I remember being completely dead. Not just temporarily dead like you are when you’re killed, but one hundred percent dead until the Bad Wolf stepped in and brought me back. I’ve been a lot further into death than you get to go, and I can promise you, the dark isn’t it. That’s just a waystation, because you’re not staying, you’re just visiting. I suppose it’s easier to just store you as a sort of temporary computer file before downloading you back into your body.”

“Temporary computer file?” Jack sounded indignant.

Ianto shrugged. “A convenient analogy. Point is, you only get partway before you’re sent back. In future when I die, because now I’m like you the dying and coming back part is practically inevitable, I expect I’ll only see what you see, the dark no-place you go to. But the first time I died I saw what’s beyond that. I was there, and it was beautiful. Everyone was there, all our friends, our families, everyone we’ve ever known or cared for, and countless people we’ve never met. When we finally reach the end or our lives, sometime millions of years in the future, we’ll go there too.”

Jack sighed, wincing at a fresh surge of pain as nerves regenerated. “I wish I could believe that.”

“You can, because it’s real. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“Not even to make me feel better?”

“No, it’s far too important to lie about. Just trust me, Jack. Our immortality isn’t forever, and when the time comes, we’ll be reunited with everyone who’s ever mattered to us. Tosh and Owen, Estelle and Steven, our parents… They’ll all be there to welcome us, but until that day we’ve got a lot to do, and the first thing on the agenda should probably be to deal with the mess here. It’s generally not a good idea to leave dead aliens lying around where someone might fall over them.”

“It’s dead?”

“You really think I’d just leave it running around loose? I shot it after it… whatever it did to you.”

“Vaporised me from the chest down?”

“Yes, that.” Ianto helped Jack sit up, his lower half bare, brand new and pink, because clothes didn’t regenerate. “D’you feel up to helping me load our visitor in the boot?”

“I think so.”

“Good. After that you can sit in the SUV while I finish the clean-up. There should be some biscuits in the glove compartment.” Food always helped Jack recover after a death. Regenerating took a lot of energy.

“You think of everything. Thank you.”

“All part of the service.” Ianto helped Jack to his feet.

“You said everyone’s there in the afterlife?” Jack asked, looking down at the alien’s corpse.

“I only saw humans when I was there, the aliens probably have their own regions. Our idea of paradise is probably nothing like theirs.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want to run into this one again.” Jack gazed around the dimly lit alley. “At least I didn’t bleed everywhere this time.”

“And I’m grateful.” Ianto gave Jack a peck on the lips. “Let’s get done and go home.”

“You read my mind.”


The End








 

Comments

[kitepiper]

Ooh yes Jack and Ianto would have unique perspectives on death and the afterlife! I love that this conversation is happening while Jack is recovering from a gruesome death, and the details of that like his nerves coming back interspersed with the philosophical conversation, and Ianto reassuring him. Love this!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you. I had several ideas for the prompt, but this was the one that demanded to be written. I didn't expect it to be as long as it is, but once I got started I found there was a lot more to explore than I'd realised. Glad you liked it!