[Japan] The Land of the Living

[onlysayinghello]

Jack was standing in front of the grave, the fresh dirt still looking as if it'd barely had time to let the life around it to settle. His hand gestured to the man with the machinery to move forward and start digging. He hated to do it, disrupt the cemetery... abandon the ideals and traditions he knew had been put into place in this area. The small characters written along marble would soon be shaken by the earth getting torn up and pulled free.

All for man.

*** Twelve Hours Ago - Cardiff Wales UK ***

"Jack?"

Her voice cut across the hub with a bit more of a curious tone than one that begged an answer, but Jack still moved quickly across from his office to her station, "What's up Toshiko?"

"This... it's in our registry... marked to you, but... it's in Odessa. Just came up in the scans, and well... you're here."

Jack smiled, "Oh, it's fine." Standing back up he started to head back to his office, rubbing at the back of his neck trying to think of what was in Odessa... of course his mind went to the one thing he knew as a truth, and suddenly he wasn't quite sure if he should have been so... not curious about Adam's intentions for changing the world. There were rumors throughout history, but... Jack brushed it off.

"Jack? It just hopped." There was a pause and Jack wasn't sure what to actually expect the answer to be, but the term hopped... well it didn't exactly instill much faith in the landing spot.

"To?"

"Japan."

That really wasn't right at all. Jack moved back to the screen looking over the readings that were coming up, "Is the elevation reading on that right?" Jack didn't need to look to Tosh to know that she was nodding her head, and he didn't need anything else to tell him that he had to go do something. It was one thing to live forever... it was quite another to do it trapped... beneath the ground.

"Print all that out," Jack said as he headed to his office to make a few calls and head out. "I'm going to Japan."

*** Present Day - Japan ***

It wasn't that he expected it to be easy, but really as he watched the machinery dig and claw at the earth all Jack could think about what the things he'd known... the facts he'd replayed over in his head. All the events of the century that would change it all forever... Odessa had been one of them. New York another, but that one hadn't gone through and he thought for sure... that they were just rumors. But now, now Adam or at least something that Adam had owned up until recently was buried beneath him.

The tap on his shoulder drew him out of his thoughts, "Yeah?" He was just glad that the guy that was working in the cemetery spoke English, because he knew his Japanese was a bit rusty.

"We have hit concrete."

"So?"

"It is not normal to bury with concrete. Who do you believe is down there? I do not think this will dig through that."

Jack just stared at the man, staring him down until the guy knew that answer wasn't acceptable. The man bowed and headed off to make a call hopefully.

*** Two Hours Later - Japan ***

Buried alive. Dirt, concrete... whatever... whoever had done this Jack was certain wanted Adam where he couldn't hurt anyone ever again... or disrupt anything. But the thing about time was that you couldn't control it like this. No one was in the place to play God... no matter how right they felt it was going to be. No matter what they thought was the answer... this was no way to treat another human... willingly.

They had broken through the concrete and three men were down in the chasm passing what pieces they could hand up in buckets and along lines tied to pulleys at the top up to the surface again. Jack paced waiting for them to tell him anything other than the one thing he didn't want to hear... that it was empty. Death wasn't even a worry for him... but effort without results was.

The voice called out to him and Jack moved to the side of the hole dug into the ground and he saw the top of the casket. Taking one leap down he landed a bit shaky and knelt down to pry at the lid along with the other men. The concrete had seeped into the cracks, nearly sealing it up tight, but three men plus Jack managed to finally crack the casket open, and there he was... how healthy he was would only take a bit. The other men upon seeing just what Jack had asked them to dig up, moved with little haste to get the hell out of there. Grave robbing... it was more than offensive, it was probably illegal and against all their traditions.

Jack just didn't care. Someone had buried him... and he was going to at least save him from an abyss of forever. No one deserved that sort of eternity.

Comments

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Letting his fingers grip a bit into Adam's shoulder easily, just enough to give him a feeling of support, that even though he didn't have all the answers, that he hoped they'd be there in time. Everything that could have happened, and all the things Jack had seen happen... a whole year rewound, a lifetime relived... he'd seen men broken and bewildered by things they didn't understand, or want to trust. Jack didn't want to ask or pry, but he also didn't like not knowing what could have put Adam in such a situation.

There were things... other methods of getting retribution or revenge that didn't incorporate burying someone alive... especially if they knew truly who Adam was. He didn't think anyone deserved that sort of treatment... and deep down Jack figured everyone had flaws, and faults, and Jack in all his travels, and all of his cons... knew he wasn't perfect... far from it, but he knew the sentence that someone had put on Adam... all on their own. He knew that was inhuman.

Jack pushed away all his doubts and questions for the time being, knowing that the truth would come... he hoped it would come, "We'll head back to Cardiff... I've got my flat, no one will think to look for you there." Jack sighed taking Adam's hand in his and pressing a kiss atop knuckles for a moment, it was a bit chivalrous, but it was just a simple gesture for the moment, "We'll figure it out."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

There is suddenly a sword point near Jack's face. A steel-eyed young Japense man is staring up at him.

"Who are you? And what is your business here?" His voice is cold as ice. In his time Jack has probably seen the typical mask most Japanese wear, but this one seems to have been welded onto this young face in order to let nothing out.

Jack would have sworn no one was there a moment ago and considering the open ground, it would be rather hard for him to sneak up on them.

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Even the top Time Agent in his field wouldn't have been able to predict that happening, nor the reflection of his own nose in the blade before his features. It was a bit startling, but there was a part of him that still could pick up on someone else who had cut through time. It was how he was able to pick out the Doctor in a crowd of people dancing... even when one of them was the Doctor. It was something of a mystery, but Jack suddenly wished he had asked Adam a bit more in those first few moments of his reawakening.

His hand reached up, releasing Adam from his arm so that he could take a careful step back, his hand gingerly attempting to remove the blade from in front of his face, "I'm Captain Jack Harkness... and you are going to put someone's eye out with that thing."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Not unless you give me reason to. What is your business here?" He only spares the smallest of glances at Adam, but Jack can see a measure of shame and anger cross the mask for the endurance of that glance.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

Adam froze as Hiro appeared, sword or no. He'd never been afraid in battle, never been afraid of Hiro, until he actually left, but with the grave yawning behind him, he felt his heart skip a beat and the block of ice that seemed to have settled inside him grew even colder.

Quick as lightning, though, his fingers wrapped around the sword, heedless of the cutting pain, the slick blood that wetted his palm, and regardless of Jack's stepping back. He knew how quick Hiro could be with that thing.

"I'll thank you not to be pointing my sword at my friends, carp."

He was rather proud of how steady his voice was, how quiet, given that all he could think was which one of these graves he'd end up in next. Jack could heal, and he didn't think Hiro would do anything worse to him. He didn't know Jack, had no reason to hurt him except for freeing Adam. Which meant, he'd somehow have to trust Jack to find him again if Hiro moved them away now that he'd connected. He'd caught the shame, but it didn't do very much to reassure him.

"And his business is undoing what you wrought when you buried me alive." He shook his head slowly. "Did you really think you could keep me in there?" Taunting the boy? Probably not his best move, but he couldn't seem to stop it, lips curving into a cold smile that belied the terror, the screams, the shredded satin and the hours of dark nothingness.

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Jack was really confused, stuck in the middle of something he clearly didn't understand, and despite the sudden appearance of the man, the sharp tones that Adam was using, and the blade now cutting into Adam's palm Jack almost felt like he had about enough of whatever the hell was going on. He hated being a whistle blower, in fact most times he actually was the one getting the whistle blown, now though it didn't even seem his place.

He did of course really didn't like the sword pointed at him, nor did he really like the site of blood now streaming slightly against Adam's wrist. He was trying to follow the conversation as well which was a bit dizzying and filled with a lot of venom and hatred from both sides it seemed. The blood against the pale of Adam's wrist started to fade a bit, no doubt his healing taking over a bit, but still Jack was at a loss for words, except that he knew this was the man who had thought imprisoning Adam this way was the answer.

"So you're the one that did that? To another human... you trapped him in there for an eternity... who the hell do you think you are? Asking me what my business is when you are the one that should be asking yourself what type of a man does that to another person?"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hiro's eyes are locked with Adam's. The anger finally breaks through the mask, but everything else that's tangling up his mind and heart is still hidden behind it.

The tip of the sword shifts from Jack to Adam. His voice is still cold. "Are you one of his genocidal group? Do you know just who and what you're protecting? I buried him to keep the world safe or does that not matter to you as well?"

Hiro wants to scream. He has no idea who Jack is. He was staring at Adam with a great deal of affection before Hiro brought his sword to bear. He is unsure if this is another one of his lover/disciples.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

There was anger boiling inside Adam, but a raging hurt, too, that threatened to overwhelm.

"He's not part of this, carp," he told Hiro, eyes never leaving his, the nickname rolling off as sweetly as ever. There was the strangest urge to protect Jack, and to protect himself. And to end this, somehow, even though it wasn't something he could do with any finality, even with rage in his veins. "He's a friend. He's not one of us."

Adam shifted toward the sword, hand sliding down the blade toward the hilt, blooding the blade further. His blade. His symbol. His legacy. His voice was very soft, very intimate, and he didn't even bother with a glance at Jack.

"You had no right to take what I told you and use it against me like that. To do that to me. Where is the heroism, carp? You didn't put me in there to keep the world safe. You have power I cannot match, cannot overcome, for all my ability. You could have frozen time again, teleported me to some desert, taken it straight to Peter, done a hundred different things. What you did? That was vengeance, pure and simple. Maybe you're entitled to it, as I was to mine, but don't you dare say you put me in there, that you twisted everything between us and did that to save the world." There was more hurt, and terror from the hours, screams still in his ears, and his eyes weren't quite sane from it. "Don't. You. Dare."