Achieving Avalon (Prologue)

[hopenight]

Title: Achieving Avalon
Author: HopeNight
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, past Arthur/Merlin, past Ianto/Lisa, past Ianto/others, Gwen/Rhys
Ianto Jones/Merlin Emrys, Captain Jack Harkness/Arthur Pendragon, Toshiko Sato, Doctor Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams, Morgana la Fey/Lady Morgana Farthing, Great Dragon/Cameron Ashmore, Nimueh/Naomi Smith
Warnings: OOC-ness running rampant, rude language, REALLY AU after Cyberwoman, Jack Harkness in general
Rating: PG-13 possibly light R
Current Word Count: 19,026
Beta(s): scarlet_reader
Artist: chosenfire28
Summary: Ianto Jones is a perfectly ordinary man with no past and a not so ordinary job. Merlin Emrys on the other hand? He has a trail of mysticism, magic, death, love, and reincarnation following him like a lost puppy. Somehow it’s up to him to put a little magic back into the Torchwood teams lives especially Jack’s. Why? Well because it’s Jack he falls in love with every lifetime and it’s up to the Captain to get his own memories back.
Notes: This was just a weird little chestnut in my head. So yeah I wrote and I enjoyed it. Thanks to my wonderful beta, scarlet_reader.

“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also - if you love them enough.” –George Washington Carver

Everyone has secrets. Some are worse than others. Like cheating on your boyfriend/girlfriend with their best friend/sibling, that is a pretty bad secret. The cheating would inevitably end up with you getting caught if you continue it.

How about this secret? Your husband/wife has a double life complete with another family. Hate to say it but that’s worse than cheating. If you are good at secrets than this would be discovered upon your death and if you are bad at secrets this will probably end up in two separate, messy divorces.

The worst on the normal scale would be finding out that a loved one, someone you know, turned out to be a cold blooded killer. No mercy toward anyone or anything. Suddenly life does not make sense anymore.

These are the normal secrets. Things that people always seem to hear about from a friend, a loved one, or the anchor on the evening news. They are secrets humanity deals with everyday. They are the secrets that can tear people apart or force them together in normal, ordinary life.

So what about the secrets that are not so normal?

The answer is simple: look for people whose lives are not so ordinary. The people usually included in this category are as follows: secret agents, spies, some government officials, foreign dignitaries, the Queen, and those who are involved with aliens. The last bit of it may seem laughable, but let me direct you to the organization known as Torchwood.

Torchwood is a secret organization (which should be known as the organization that normally saves our collective asses from evil aliens bent on world domination. But since that title is way too long to fit on a car, let’s stick to Torchwood). The workers of this semi top secret organization have a LOT of secrets. Take former PC Gwen Cooper and Doctor Owen Harper, they had an affair. That’s an ordinary secret, right? Well yes for the most part but the beginning of said affair is not so ordinary.

This affair started when they were locked in a morgue drawer hiding from a psychopathic cyborg girlfriend of one of their coworkers.

Another not so ordinary secret would be Captain Jack Harkness. A man whose secrets are so vast and deep that it seemed the Captain is made of them. Which of course is very silly, no one is made of secrets but the walls they build up make them appear to be made of them. Jack Harkness had some pretty large walls.

Then there are the secrets of Ianto Jones, which should be put in category labeled as ‘Holy Freaking Shit’. His positions for Torchwood Three are as follows: Head Archivist, General Support, and Butler. Coffee God could possibly be added. His coffee is to die for after all. So what sort of secrets does Ianto Jones have that land him in the Holy Freaking Shit category?

Well…he did hide his cyborg girlfriend in the bowels of the Hub and successfully conned his co-workers and his ex-con man boss. While this is impressive and possibly goes with the killer category in the ordinary secrets genre; it’s not why he has his own category.

Is it his sinfully delicious coffee the likes of which no one seems to produce? Close but sadly no. That takes years of practice.

Could his almost near perfect recall be the culprit? Well no that’s just something he found out years later.

So what is it? That makes Ianto Jones categorize in the Holy Freaking Shit category of secret? Even pass his immortal boss, Captain Jack Harkness?

Well it’s because Ianto Jones doesn’t really exist. That’s the wrong way to phrase it. He does exist in records, in transcripts, in documents. To United Kingdom Ianto E. Jones has existed since August 19, 1983 and, by some miracle, is still alive in present. So yes if documentation counted as someone existing then Ianto E. Jones DOES exists.

Ask around where he said he grew up and you’ll find no one remembers him. Ask his supposed primary and secondary teachers that he said had him, they will just look at you strangely.

Ianto E. Jones does not appear in anyone’s memory until he was 16 years old and going off to University with his GCSE’s in English, Chemistry, Art, and Biology.

He studied to achieve both a Bio-Chem. degree and a degree in Medieval Literature as well as achieving a minor in Drawing. He graduated with honors from University and within two weeks of graduation was immediately snatched up by Torchwood. The rest, as they say, is history.

So how did Ianto E. Jones seem to appear out of thin air? Why does no one remember him? Yet he has documentation saying that they are supposed to? How can one achieve so much at such an apparently young age?

How can he pull it off? No forgeries are that excellent. It was as if it was magic that did this.

Magic is the correct answer to this little conundrum of Ianto Emrys Jones. It enabled perfect documents to exist so that Ianto can exist. Just as it had for others before the identity of Ianto was created. Magic was what made the physical disguise of Ianto Jones exist.

Under the magic, past the disguise, dive deeper than the fake documents, and for all that work you will see the real man behind Ianto Jones. Behind the masks and lies you will find Myrddin, Emrys…

Merlin

The greatest sorcerer ever to have set foot in history, yet everyone believed him to be nothing but a myth. The tales of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Morgana le Fay, Sir Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table have been told many times over. These stories have been told so many times that they have faded into legend, in myth, but never in history.

Camelot was real. Ianto walked amongst the people as Merlin. The reason that he still lives is simple to him. It’s complicated to most us.

Arthur

King Arthur, the once and future king, was said to be a kind, benevolent, and good man; a fair and just king to his people. Yet to Merlin he will always be Arthur the Prat.

Arthur: his best friend, his prince, his employer, his protector, his confidant, and above everything else…he will always remain Merlin’s lover. His one, true love…the other half of the coin as the dragon put it. His destiny will always be intertwined with Arthur’s.

Merlin is fine with that. It’s the waiting that he does not like. Immortality does have horrible drawbacks. His number one will always be the waiting. He knows that Arthur will always be connected to the land of his birth. It will always be home to the king. So he hangs around the British Isles, if nothing is interesting in the world, then he does some traveling or finds something to amuse himself with on the side.

However, the first moment there is a whisper of something big brewing; Merlin drops everything and rushes back to his homeland. He knows that Arthur will be there unknowing and yet waiting for him to come.

At first, Ianto joined Torchwood as something to amuse himself with. It was just a bit on the side. He had a good feeling about the twenty first century and Arthur. He could feel in his bones. So he changed his appearance yet again. His accent went this time as well. He always wanted to be Welsh. He got new credentials, went to University, and when Torchwood came knocking, he took their offer for a job.

He did not expect Lisa to enter the picture. Perhaps Guinevere would be a more befitting name. He could count on one hand the times that she had been reborn. She seemed to recognize him almost instantly. Together they fell back into their old friendship; then they fell into something quite like love but not exactly. She would always love Lancelot. She knew that his heart was Arthur’s.

The sex was a comfort more than a relationship. Something they both needed when Lisa was waiting for Lancelot as Ianto waited for Arthur.

Still it didn’t make what he did for her any less meaningful. She was Lisa and Guinevere. Ianto could remember a time when they were both servants, when he would bitch to her about Arthur. Lisa listened to him bitch about Yvonne. He listened to tales of her new life. She listened to his exploits over the centuries. Two women Lisa and Gwen were different but the same; he loved them both so much.

After Canary Wharf, which even though not the worst thing he saw in vast lifetime still ranked as something pretty bad, he had to help her. He needed to help her because she was his friend. No matter what he would always love her. If not to help her, then for Lancelot because he and Guinevere always ended up happy for the most part when they were reborn

So Ianto Jones went in search of a job.

That’s when things got really, really tricky in the form of Captain Jack Harkness: the man who seems to be made of secrets.

There is this secret about Jack that only Ianto will ever know. He’s determined not to let the Captain find out at least not yet. Ianto always knew that something was off with Jack. He figured it out when the man tried to kiss him back to life.

He felt that power trying to enter his body. If Jack knew about his past life, then whatever talent he has could be a benefit or a hindrance to the Grand Scheme.

Everyone has secrets. Ianto Jones, Merlin, whatever you want to call him simply has more than most people. He even knows one about his boss, Captain Jack Harkness or as he knew him long ago: Arthur.

So let’s begin the tale and unravel these twisted secrets.

Comments

[scarlet-reader.livejournal.com]

Dude. I somehow completely skipped the prologue and went straight to the first chapter. Whoops! lol. Anyway great, again. And.....I'm first! (again) lol.

[ladyreapermc.livejournal.com]

I loved the idea!
I just finished watching Torchwood series two and this thought about jack/ianto being arthur/merlin came to my mind...
awesome to see it written! =D

[hopenight.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it!

[b-o-w-a.livejournal.com]

Oh my. This story is going to make me stay up all night so I can finish it, isn't it? Yes, yes it is. *nods head* I'm willing do to it for this story too. :P This story is amazing so far, I love it! I love your writing style and the crossover and really, everything. Fantastic job on this!

[hopenight.livejournal.com]

Love your icon!

I'm glad you enjoyed the story! You did right? I hope you didn't stay up all night. You need your sleep!

I'm glad you loved it so much! Well what I know that you read of it so far!