superiorspectre | {rp} Will you defeat them, your demons and all the nonbelievers, the plans that they have made?

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{rp} Will you defeat them, your demons and all the nonbelievers, the plans that they have made?

Suzie hasn't been to see Tosh. She hasn't even tried. If Tosh needs anyone around her right now, it's people she can trust. And Suzie's got no illusions there.

Instead, she's working at being useful, working out her story. She's got something no one else has when it comes to infiltration and deception -- her cover story, if she plays it right, is the absolute truth.

In her own timeline, she'd have betrayed Torchwood. It was only a matter of time. And, sickening as that thought is, it's her armour here and now. He can't spot a lie when there isn't one.

Gwen might've said she wanted to save that for when there were no other options, but right now, the best efforts of geniuses and aliens haven't brought her Captain back. Maybe a manipulative, backstabbing little bitch might have a chance.

After all, she thinks, she was good enough to fool Jack Harkness, in the future everyone else remembers. Maybe, just maybe, she's good enough to play Thane as well.

She knows a few things about what she's walking into; the kind of man she's dealing with, the way he likes having power over others... And her facade has cracks in it, places the old scars still show. She'd be stupid if she didn't think he'd exploit them. And again, she's better-suited than anyone else to go in -- she's been there before, after all.

And maybe, just maybe, this will count as penance, somehow, for the things she did that led to the things she didn't.

She's doing this. She won't be argued with. However, she does have a concept of chain of command, informal as that's always been around Torchwood. Ideally, she needs to speak to Gwen Cooper, but she's not keen on going right over Sam's head. And given what she's about to do...

Well. It might help if there's someone she can't lie to, to reassure (Tosh) everyone of her intentions.

So this is the plan: find Sam, then talk to Gwen, then... Do what else she needs to do. She's going to want a word with the Vesmier, but first, to talk things through with her commanders.

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If Sam were the type to pace, he'd be doing it now. What he tends to do, rather, is take up a position somewhere, and sit there, and think until the restlessness gets to be too much - at which point, he'll get up, move somewhere else to think for a while, and repeat the process.

At the moment, he's at a table in the kitchen, staring off at nothing in particular, glancing every now and then to his journal just in case... well, the prisoners may be back, but Thane's still out there, and Sam's just waiting for the next disaster. It's driving him a little mad that there's not much he can do but wait, unless he wants to talk to Marshall about building a circular sawblade launcher. He's almost considering that at this point.

He glances over when Suzie enters the room, and smiles a little in a tired, distant way. "Suzie." It's half a greeting, half a question. If she needs him for something... well, it'll be more useful than what he's doing now.

"Sam." Suzie gives him a quick, professional smile, and then steels herself for what she's about to say. On the surface she's perfectly calm, collected, but there are lead weights in her stomach, and it's taking an effort of will not to fidget.

"I think I may have an idea for helping with Thane. Normally Gwen would handle this, and I've brought the idea up with her before, when we went to consult with the Vesmier after this all started, but she preferred to use it as a last resort. It seems to me that we're running out of options, however. And since you're my commander in this case, I wanted to clear this with you before approaching her with the idea again." She swallows, then continues. "I'm uniquely suited to get close to Thane, and get information any other psychic would have to strain for. I can see Jack. I can give every appearance of defecting, and provide a perfectly reasonable and 99% true cover story for doing so. No one else here has that."

Sam frowns at her momentarily, and then pushes his chair back, rising to his feet. "You want to go in," he says, just as a confirmation. "If something happens, Suzie, we can't..." No, she knows that if something happens, they won't be able to pull her out. And she was right about running out of options...

He grimaces and looks away for a second, drawing a breath. "How much good do you think this would do? Honestly?" He's not throwing her in there just because they don't know what else to do. But if she really thinks she can get through to Jack, or that she might learn something they can use to stop him...

Gwen is not going to love this plan. Gwen would like the circular sawblade plan more than this.

And this is the question she's agonized over more than anything else, but...

"I'm not going to be able to bring Jack back myself. I can tell you that much. But the repressed memories and personalities seem to gain in strength and clarity the more I speak with them. If I can get him thinking at all, it'll be two double-agents for the price of one. If I can't, I should still be able to get something we can use. And then there's Thane's shadow. What he's repressing is nothing less than a full-on death wish." And that scares her, really it does. Because if he ever finds a way, they lose Jack.

"All it wants is for the pain to end. Given how Thane's been acting recently... It's possible it'll be a bit more prominent. And if I can win it over, that's another source of information, if not outright influence. Don't bet on the influence, but it should be possible." A pause. "I think I can get it on my side. I came close, when Thane was in here looking for the Doctor."

They are running out of options. At this point, absolutely anything that might help them... It could get her killed. Never mind that, at the rate they're going, it's likely to get her killed, and just because no one's actually died yet...

"I think Gwen's in her office." It's been there or in the TARDIS for some time now, and he passed her in the hall not that long ago. "We should talk to her."

Suzie just nods. "Sir." She's aware she could die, and is also aware of several things which might or might not be worse.

And she's going to go through with this anyway. Suzie Costello, the consummate survivour, is going to walk into hell for her Captain. And, to a lesser extent, for the same team that wants as little to do with her as possible.

It's almost funny, in a certain way that's also completely terrifying. But it's the job, and despite everything, she loves her bloody job.

So she's just going to walk with Sam to Gwen's office, and from there... They'll just see, won't they?

Gwen is, for once, actually in her office, staring at her journal like it contains the solution to all her problems. What it actually contains is far too many entries she wishes never had reason to exist, but that's entirely beside the point.

She snaps the journal shut as soon as Sam and Suzie appear in the doorway, looking up in concern. "What is it?" Better than any of the other ways she could think of to phrase it - what's wrong, or what happened? It's always something...

Suzie looks over at Gwen, meeting her eyes firmly. Gwen Cooper. In the next universe over, she'd have tried to kill her, eventually. Now she's asking for permission and aid in possibly killing herself. Funny, that.

"I was discussing something with Sam. The idea I had when this all started, me going in?" There's a slight tentative note to her voice there, but she pushes past it. "As far as I know, we're running out of options, and we've still got no one better qualified to send in after him as a convincing double-agent."

Gwen stares at the two of them for a second like Suzie just suggested that attacking Thane with hummus was their next best option, and then shakes her head slowly. "We just got everyone back. I'm not sending someone else in just because we don't have a solution right now."

She shoots a half glare at Sam, and then Suzie, as if she's not sure who to be annoyed with, Suzie for having the idea or Sam for encouraging it, and shakes her head again. "No. I'm sorry, but no. We will find another way." A way that doesn't involve sending anyone else in there, especially not alone.

And she's not even considering it. Bloody. Fucking. Hell. "You say we will, but we haven't done much so far, have we? What we've got is a bloody lot of aliens who've tried several things with varying degrees of success, and it looks like even they might be running out of options, while a rogue Time Agent with a combined murderous streak and a death wish is running about."

Suzie takes a deep breath and leans forward slightly, hands resting on Gwen's desk. And, as she does so, she reaches for the construct the Vesmier built for her, opening that third eye, and taking a good long look. She'll need all the information she can get if she's going to win this, every advantage she can exploit.

"The one person best suited to dealing with someone with all of Jack's capabilities is Jack himself. And Jack's trapped there, inside his own head, struggling. I've seen him. I can reach him."

She's keeping eye contact, her gaze hard and determined, trying to hold Gwen's gaze with her own, to drive the point home through sheer force of will if she has to. "Listen: I'm not trusted here, and you've got very good reasons for not trusting me. I'm a manipulative bitch with a long habit of doing whatever it takes to survive. I'm very good at using people, very good at getting them to believe whatever I want them to believe, and if I'd continued on the path I was on, I'd have killed several people, and tried to kill you and Jack both. I've also got some very good reasons to hate the Doctor.

"The fact that I'm horrified by what I would've done, the fact as things stand my one priority is getting our Captain back, and the fact that I have no intentions whatsoever of betraying the Doctor or any members of Torchwood and that I want Thane to fucking burn for what he did to Tosh are all irrelevant." There's a flicker in her eyes, pain and fury, quickly smoothed over. "I've got enough backing me up that's nothing but truth, not a single lie for him to sniff out, and I was good enough to have all of Torchwood, Jack Harkness included, fooled for quite some time. I've got good odds of getting his subconscious on my side, and given the very limited trust that anyone has in me, if I die..." She smiles a bit, and it's not a nice smile. "You've lost nothing you were really using anyway."

There's pure challenge in her eyes now. Go on, then. Argue with that. There's no one better for this than me, and you're out of options, for all that you're talking about finding another way. Let me do what I'm best at.

Gwen manages to stay quiet through all of that, though a part of her badly wants to interrupt her and inform her in no uncertain terms that there is no way in hell she is letting her walk in there, under any circumstances. She glances past Suzie momentarily to Sam, searching his face for any sign that she's being less than truthful, but there's not a wince, not a grimace, and god damn it, she has a point.

When Suzie stops talking, Gwen stands up slowly, her hands on the desk, and says evenly without looking away from Suzie's face, "Sam, would you give us a moment?" He pauses a moment, eying her in concern, and then nods and steps out of the room, closing the door behind him. Gwen has no doubt that he'll be close enough that she can speak to him after this, but for now...

"Everyone who has gone in there so far has been knocked out, handcuffed to a wall, and tortured. Even Hart, and he was working with him! What makes you think that you'll be any different? There's a good chance he'll kill you before you can say two words to him, and then it won't matter what a manipulative bitch you are, you will be dead, and believe it or not, that bothers me!"

There's a massive, shadowy lion prowling around Suzie, growling quietly and constantly to herself, occasionally swinging close enough to bump her head against Suzie with a somewhat louder growl when she does. Jack is gone and they came so close to losing Tosh and she is not ready to let another of those under her protection go running off to die.

Every now and then, she casts Suzie a look like she's considering grabbing her by the scruff of the neck and just holding her until she gives up this insane plan. If a shadow could actually manage that, Suzie might have something to worry about.

There's a suit of Chula armor discreetly stalking Suzie. Has been for a while, now.

It tracked her as she went to talk to Sam, then followed her progress up to Gwen's office, then positioned itself in the lobby, passive-scanning and mapping out potential routes.

Once again, there's nothing it can do. Can't accompany her without both endangering her infiltration and changing the course of the timeline. Can't prevent her from going without... well, doing both of the above, to a much greater extent. So what exactly it's stalking her for is an open question.

But, well, there it is.

Suzie shakes her head. "Have you noticed yet that Thane hasn't killed any of us on sight? Knocked us out, tortured us... Everything I've seen tells me that he's interested in having power over people. He's not above casual elimination, but if he's interested enough, he'd be more likely to try and take me apart first. He's kidnapping people for a few drinks and a friendly ear, now. If he's willing to hear me out at all..." and yes, that's a long shot, but she's taken longer, "...that gives me time to get to him. All I have to do is be interesting enough."

I'm sorry. But you know it's true. And better me than them.

"Besides, if he's busy with me, he's not trying to hurt the rest of you. It makes sense, Gwen." She's not going to plead on this, not going to beg... That kind of manipulation won't get her anywhere. What she is going to do is keep pushing for this.

Unstoppable force against immovable object. Something's got to give, and it won't be her.

Suzie's passing through the lobby, perhaps just a bit terrified, but still determined as ever, when she sees the robot and stops, curious despite herself.

"So you're what all the fuss has been about," she murmurs, stepping closer. That may be a bit of a smile forming on her lips, because if there's one thing that can distract Suzie from impending horror, it's something alien and unknown to her. "Just look at you..."

The robot scans her, but this time, there's a pause. It's catalogued almost everyone in the tower, of course, and it has protocols for those it has and hasn't, but...

{Identified: Object: Processing No data stored in module ALLE. Identified: Costello, Suzie Jeanette. This unit identifies as Chula Antipersonnel Armour completion ID D1747ч.

Custom message load: this unit has messages(1) to activate in this near temporal region. Designated recipient: 'Suzie Costello'. Threat of catastrophic paradox seeded by message play: 3.221%. Threat level approaches autocancel threshold. Play message Yes/No?}

...It has a message for her. Curiouser and curiouser.

"I doubt there's much of anything you could do to change what I'm about to do," she says. Though the fact that it's so close to the autocancel threshold for a catastrophic paradox is...

She takes a deep breath. Lets it out. Let it never be said Suzie's curiosity couldn't put a cat to shame. "Yes. Play it, please."

Three clicks. A second of silence. Then a synthesized recording. It's flat – mechanical attention to metre, to enunciation, but no emotion.

Then again, maybe that's left to the words themselves.

{
Fear death? - to feel the fog in my throat,
The mist in my face,
When the snows begin, and the blasts denote
I am nearing the place,
The power of the night, the press of the storm,
The post of the foe;
Where he stands, the Arch fear in visible form,
Yet the strong man must go:
For the journey is done and the summit attained,
And the barriers fall,
Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained,
The reward of it all.
I was ever a fighter, so - one fight more,
The best and the last!
I would hate Death bandaged my eyes, and forebore,
And bade me creep past.
No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers
The heroes of old,
Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears
Of pain, darkness, and cold.
For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave,
The black minute's at end,
And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave,
Shall dwindle, shall blend,
Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain,
Then a light, then thy breast,
O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,
And with God be the rest!
}

And suddenly Suzie's heart is lodged in the vicinity of her throat, beating much too hard and quick, like a trapped, frightened thing.

"Who... Who left that message?"

CNJ's face, such as it is, is impassive.

{File access: Dossier:Causal/common:0A1 Response loaded: This armor unit has been requisitioned from the Chula Aegmatra Council of Delta Crateris, Chula Crosstime Measure N139:C202VA:C0701D, Chula Agency Internal Requisition stamp 462O1:00001 ; Unit programmed via direct psychic interface ID 462O1:C24A401 and literal physical interface ; Additional information request YES/NO ?}

Suzie narrows her eyes, looks CNJ over, and then nods. "Yes."

And there she goes, compulsively hoarding information, trying to fit things together in her head. Something to do, something to focus on that's not Thane.

The head shifts, just a bit, re-angling itself and scanning over Suzie's face.

{Please define parameters of additional information request.}

Suzie stops, thinks. "Is there any further information you can give me about the one who programmed you without crossing the autocancel threshold?"

If it runs off, that'll do her no good at all. And she'd rather keep the possibility of getting a message to Jack, even if she won't be there to see him again.

A faint sigh, almost like an exhalation or a very soft cooling fan, sounds from the armor.

{This unit was programmed after the events of user-defined timeline segment including direct causal events originating in this near temporal region. Program originator ID: 462O1: Agency naming code 'J'. Cannot calculate cascade impact of confirming alias.}

...That sigh, mechanical as it is, is somehow familiar. Likely just a coincidence, but for a moment, she hears Jack, and the way he'd sigh when she'd rush in and try to take something apart. The kind of sigh that wordlessly conveyed, You just have to poke at that, don't you?

It proves nothing, but the Agency naming code, and that ID... She's seen that before.

"If it's any consolation, you've told me nothing that narrows things down beyond the two possibilities I had before I even asked." She gives it the same crooked grin she'd have given Jack in the same situation, a little wry, a little sheepish, then catches herself. It's Jack or Thane that programmed this thing, and even if it's acting benign, that proves nothing. She can hope for Jack, but she's got no way of knowing what Thane's going to find out about her, and she wouldn't put a good bit of fucking-with-her-mind past him.

"I need you to deliver a message for me," she says. "When this is over, if and only if Captain Jack Harkness comes back to us -- his consciousness in control, not Thane -- tell him this for me:

"When I hoped I feared,
Since I hoped I dared;
Everywhere alone
As a church remain;
Spectre cannot harm,
Serpent cannot charm;
He deposes doom,
Who hath suffered him."

She looks up into the robot's face, such as it is. Silly to expect it to react, but she hasn't been at her most rational right now, and she's prepared to forgive herself. "Can you do that for me, please?"

A dark flash travels over the robot's armor, glinting from eyes to scanner, pulsing down through the cracks as one hand sweeps forward and almost – almost – catches her arm. Then everything freezes, but for a long series of clicking.

The robot draws up again, straightening back to a neutral stance. {Accessed: Chula exospecial panlegomenon: Species:Human;Period:This;Focus:Literature … processing … searching … Accessed: Author:Dickinson; Accessed codex … … … user message logged. User message continues:

A DEED knocks first at thought,
And then it knocks at will.
That is the manufacturing spot…

System autocancel: interface reactivity spike. Connection closed. Message:logging:TRUE. Message:deliver:TRUE. Error: internal access. Parameter error. Imprint data inconsistent. Parameter match:FALSE. System lockdown: autoequilibrium restore in F03…F02…F01…F00…EFF…EFE…EFD…}

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{rp} Will you defeat them, your demons and all the nonbelievers, the plans that they have made?

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