10111

Ronnie and I didn't want to break up our embrace, but as time went on we couldn't help but untangle ourselves for one another. We could hear footsteps coming up behind us to come into the computer room, and we weren't about to get caught holding onto one another and sobbing like children because of who was behind us on the wall. I ended up sinking to the floor in my misery.

But when we turned around to see who had entered the room, we recieved quite a surprise.

There were two women standing there. Cecily Algernon, leader of the Intel Initative, and Preeti Bhanap, President of the United States.

"President Bhanap," I stuttered out, rising up to my feet in a flurry of flustered motion. I attempted to say something more formal but instead only ended up repeating her name once again. What was she doing here? Wouldn't it be dangerous to have the President of the United States in enemy territory?

"Alia Parr, yes?" she asked. As I nodded, she extended her hand out to meet mine. "It's nice to meet you, although I wish we could be meeting under better circumstances."

"You as well," I said, nearly tripping over my words once again. "I...I'm sorry that we have to meet here."

Questions flew through my head and threatened to push out of my lips, but I managed to keep them back as Cecily stepped forwards. It was evident she hadn't been expecting the two of us to be there, but there was nothing to be done about that. Now she had to make sure that the president knew what was going on, of course.

"This is Veronica Truitt, better known as Ronnie," Cecily explained, gesturing back to the blonde haired girl who was currently scowling at the use of her given name. I almost felt like scolding her - she shouldn't be using that as her first impression to the president - but instead I remained silent.

The pure shock of the situation was only just starting to settle into my skin as I watched Ronnie step up to shake the president's hand, just as I had. The president knew our names. She knew who we were. She had just shaken our hands and made a bit of conversation with us.

Then the reality started settling in as well - what was the president doing here to begin with? Even though I could already feel myself shaking, I decided that I needed to ask. This was a time when answers needed to be given.

"What...what are you doing here?" I said, feeling as if words were simply dropping from my tongue and straight to the floor without any control from me. "Shouldn't you be...shouldn't..."

"Shouldn't I be in a safe place? Governing America? I suppose I should be, but this is a matter of national importance as well. I think it's only fitting that I am here in person - I was the one who created the Intel Initiative, after all."

"Of course," Ronnie said, nodding several times. "Basically we're at the end now, aren't we?"

"We believe we're getting very close to the end of the Intel Initiative, yes," Cecily confirmed. She seemed to be the link that was connecting us to the president to begin with, and that made the most sense.

"I figured now was the best time for me to come - I certainly do want to come and make sure that everything works out as well as it can, and if that requires my presence than you can be sure that I will be there as well," President Bhanap explained.

"But why now?" Ronnie questioned, stepping forwards. "You could've come during the beginning of the Intel Initiative and welcomed all of us...right?"

"I could've come earlier, yes," President Bhanap admitted. "But the fact of the matter is that this is a far more vital part of the process - currently the end result is far more important than welcoming a group of children to a far off land where they would begin training."

I let myself ponder over this for a few moments - although I shouldn't find it all that surprising, I knew that our president was entirely correct. Of course it was more important to retrieve data from the enemy than to begin orientation to this entirely new operation by intimidating with just how much of an issue it was.

But at the same time, it made me wonder just how important the whole situation was. I was having more or less of a conversation with the president as my brother perched lifelessly behind us. The strangeness of the situation was certainly not lost on me at this particular moment, nor was the overall fear of it all eradicated.

Ianto was still a mess, and the Intel Initiative had not yet been completed. Cecily was saying things were almost completed, and I wasn't sure how I was meant to feel about all of that. I sucked in a deep breath before I could allow myself to speak to the president once again, asking her yet another question. Cecily was almost as intimidating, which only made things worse.

"How do you know that the Intel Initiative is almost completed?" I asked. "I mean...how can it be almostcomplete? Wouldn't you want to wait until it was completely...complete?"

I mentally slapped myself - I'd been having so much difficulty forcing out just one question, and then I managed to ask several once I'd finally pushed the first one out.

"There have been energy flucuations centralized in this area," Cecily explained. "If what we believe is true, then your brother has succeeded in reviving the data."

"What?" I exclaimed. "You mean..."

"Yes," Cecily replied, beginning to nod several times over again. "It should all be over soon. The Intel Intiative is as close to succeeding as it could possibly be."

"But...but how?" I started blubbering out. I looked towards Ronnie in a moment of desperation, wondering if she knew anything more than I did. The clueless look she gave me in response showed me that she did not, however. Luckily, there was someone else waiting to answer my question.

"All of the information we've been recieving from the enemy base, the information you connected us to, has been routed straight to your brother," President Bhanap explained. "That has been the main goal of the others in the central base as we believe he is our best opportunity to do something. Anything."

"Then he's everyone's salvation," Ronnie said with a small laugh, glancing towards him. "Without him, we would be nowhere."

"Not nowhere," Cecily said, making sure to keep in her own thoughts. "But we would most certainly be farther from completing the Intel Initiative."

"And you're sure that these energy flucuations mean that Ianto's managed to start reviving data?" Ronnie said, sounding extremely skeptical. Once again, I wanted to go towards her and chastise her for acting in such a way, but instead I stayed still.

"It must be working, at least to an extent," Cecily murmured, sounding more as if she was trying to think out loud with everything going on. "I mean, I don't know what else it could possibly be...the wires are all lit up as well."

I tried to let this fact sink into my skin - it seemed so strange to think that in his current state Ianto was able to do anything more than staying just barely alive, but it certainly seemed to be case for the moment as things went on.

Now that my thoughts were focused on him, I turned around to look directly at Ianto. Could it really be true that he was doing everything? It didn't seem possible, and yet two of the people I'd been taught to respect and trust most of all were telling me that he was currently reviving data and helping to save the world, in less words.

He didn't look like he was saving the world. It didn't look like anything had changed as of late. He looked exactly the same, in my opinion. Nothing was different, and I didn't understand what it all meant.

Cecily pushed past me to look more closely at my brother. If it weren't for the president standing right by me, I might've yelled something out at her. I was trying to have a moment looking at Ianto, being with Ianto, and she was just forcing me out of her path? I wanted to scream something at her just because of how horrible I felt inside, but then I kept it all in.

I glanced back to President Bhanap and felt my stomach turn over a few times. Just like Alex, it seemed very out of place for her to be wearing a look of worry and anxiety across her face. Then again, I supposed it all made sense - the success of the data revival could help secure a safer future for her country. For our country.

All of this pain and suffering could very well be for naught if Ianto wasn't successful in finding the data and sharing it with us. He'd nearly killed himself for this one reason, and we couldn't just let be in vain. But at this point we had almost no control of what was going on. We could only spectate whatever was going on in front of us and hope it could work out without any more bad things going on.

The fear started rooting into my stomach - maybe the reason I couldn't see any difference in Ianto at the moment had to do with the fact that nothing was happening. There was a chance that we might've just lost everything in one fell swoop, including Ianto's consciousness. There was just too much at stake.

While Ronnie didn't seem to be very convinced that something was going on with Ianto at the moment, she wasn't anywhere near as worried as I felt. Then again, there was a chance that I was missing something important because I couldn't possibly hear her thoughts.

"How could he even manage to revive data like that?" Ronnie asked. "I don't understand how that's even possible."

"It's actually a fairly simple concept, just difficult to truly carry out," Cecily replied, still mainly focused on trying to find out if the data had been revived. "Ianto believes that deleting data is somewhat similar to deleting memories - you can't truly do it no matter what data eaters do. He was reminded of amnesia, and it is possible to regain memories with amnesia."

"So he thinks it's possible to regain data with his head, just like they were lost memories?" said Ronnie.

"Well, evidently he more than just thought it was possible," President Bhanap said, stepping forwards. "As one of the brightest young men I've ever met, he must've had this planned out very intricately."

"And now it's all coming together," Cecily breathed out.

"So it's working?" Ronnie asked.

"I think so...I really do," replied Cecily.

I remained silent. What could I possibly say? Ianto was the smartest person I'd ever met - but they didn't need to know that. It would make no difference in what was going on. I would remain silent, and by remaining silent I might be able to remain calm as well. If I allowed even a single word to drip out, the rest would end up with a deluge of tears.

At the very least, it did seem to be working...even though nothing properly changed as time went onwards, there were computers connected to him that could prove that his plan to revive data by sacrificing his mind could potentially manage to work.

All sets of eyes in the room that could move immediately snapped towards Cecily - she was the one who was examining the monitor next to Ianto, the one who could figure out what was going on with him at the current moment and tell us about if he was successful or not.

"It's working, yes," Cecily said, her voice gaining more energy. She sounded simultaneously shocked and thrilled. At this point, President Bhanap stepped all the way up so that she could see the same thing as Cecily. I saw her nod several times and I realized that they weren't just bluffing or anything for my sake.

There was surprise gleaming in their eyes, a fair bit of shock mixed in with their excitement. Ianto's method of trying to revive the data had been very strange and seemed very unlikely to work - but here we were. Right in front of us, he'd managed to use the power of his brain to do the impossible.

It was incredible - it felt like a miracle, to an extent. To think that we'd witnessed it all and almost never realized that anything was changing. Then again, it all seemed to be things going on inside of his mind - you couldn't hear or see other people's thoughts.

As a data eater first and foremost, it seemed maddenning to imagine managing to get data back from the depths of deletion. But if anyone could do it, it would have to be Ianto - not only was he a genius, but he was the one with the enormous fear of anything falling into oblivion.

He seemed almost like he was meant for the Intel Initiative, made specifically for the purpose of getting data back. Perhaps in a moment of fear he'd decided that's what he wanted for his life - he wanted to made specifically for the purpose of getting the data back, and then he'd managed to do just that by turning himself into a computer.

And now it was working.

I started wondering what it must feel like, trying to process all of the data feeding into your mind...everything coming it at once, you working so hard to siphon out everything that's important even though someone has worked their very hardest in order to make sure it was deleted. To use your brain that much...I could only imagine that it would be horribly painful.

But then again, what did I really know about what was going on? I was just as clueless to what was really happening as Ronnie was. She didn't know how any of this worked. She and I were in the same boat, both young and unsure of what was out in front of us. The only person who truly knew how the entire thing worked was Ianto, and Ianto was the one person who could never explain.

He was technically not my brother any more, but a machine with a human shell trying to complete the mission of the Intel Initative. He wouldn't speak to me again or anything like that, but he would work his very best to revive the data - and that seemed to be precisely what he was doing at the moment. Even though he'd risked everything for this, it all was turning out correctly.

I supposed I should be proud of him for everything he'd done. He'd sacrificed everything just for the sake of regaining data and helping the Intel Initative to be successful. I could never dedicate myself to something like that - it would be far too much for me, I knew it. I'd experienced enough trouble throughout the training and execution for the field team.

But how could I feel proud of my brother when I knew how much this would inevitably end up hurting all of the people that surrounded him? Surely he must've realized himself just how much pain he would end up causing. He was far too intelligent not to have thought of it. He must've thought of us. He must've thought of me.

My little brother, hero of the Intel Initiative. Boy turned computer. Certifiable genius. No longer able to communicate or do anything more than sustain himself in terms of life.

No longer Ianto, my Ianto Parr, who carried around books about the nervous system and became shy around Nell and flushed if her name was so much as mentioned.

How could I be proud of the former if I knew he'd managed to destroy the latter in order to achieve an end? He must've known what he would end up doing once he'd wired himself up...and he must've known that he would end up being successful in retrieving the data.

At least, it certainly seemed to be that his process was working, that everything would inevitably work out in one way or another. Cecily and President Bhanap seemed positive he was succeeding. Even though I wasn't completely happy with either of them at the moment, I still trusted their judgement on this sort of thing.

"That's it. That's all of the data," Cecily exclaimed.

"That's more than I was expecting to get, as well," President Bhanap added in. "We can work with this...we can make it through using this. This is precisely what we needed, and more."

"So that's all?" Ronnie asked, stepping forwards. "The data is back?"

"Indeed," President Bhanap confirmed. "His method worked. Ianto was able to revive the data."

A strange sensation washed over me. Part of me felt prideful, glad that it had all worked out. But the rest of me felt cold and distant - Ianto had achieved his purpose. Now all of it was over, but what he had done in order to get the data was now useless. At the very least, though, it hadn't all been in vain.

"What now?" Ronnie asked. "If we've got the data back, doesn't that mean..." She answered her own question in her mind and then started backing up to stand near me once again. She must've realized just how distressed I was at the moment despite our triumph in getting the data back.

"We did it. He did it," Ronnie murmured from beside me.

"Then it's over," I replied, my voice strangely hoarse. "All of it. It's all over."

A/N So...we're coming to a close. After all, the intel revival itself is complete. Don't forget about all of that...so yeah, that's a fun thing, isn't it? But no, this is not the final chapter. We've still got a little further to go, my lovelies.