Clique of 221B

Chapter 32: He's Back

In the governor's office there is a number of large screens on a wall which shows four different angles of Eurus in her cell. She is sitting on the floor cross-legged facing the glass, her head slightly lowered. She has long dark hair which hangs at the sides of her face and even from this distance you can see her bright blue eyes - Sherlock's eyes.
"Why am I here?" You can faintly hear a man's voice reply from somewhere away from the cameras, "Why do you think you're here?"
"No-one ever tells me." You glance at Mycroft who's sitting in a chair behind a desk. John is standing next to you to the left of Mycroft. The governor is standing at the other side of the office. I don't think he likes us very much. Everyone else is watching the footage, you turn back to it.
"Am I being punished?" Eurus asks.
"You've been bad."
"There's no such thing as bad."
"What about good?"
"Good and bad are fairy tales. We have evolved to attach an emotional significance to what is nothing more than the survival strategy of the pack animal. We are conditioned to invest divinity in utility. Good isn't really good, evil isn't really wrong, and bottoms aren't really pretty. You are a prisoner of your own meat."
"Why aren't you?"
"I'm too clever." She says these last words directly towards the camera. She seems to change from the simplest, child-like answers to producing the most logical and intelligent responses in an incredibly uncanny way. Mycroft slumps back in the chair and is no longer looking at the screen, you try to catch his eye but he seems too caught up in his thoughts. John walks closer to the screen and continues to watch intensely.
"She smiles at you when you come home. Like a reflex." Eurus stares at the camera with an unsettling expression - almost completely blank yet there's something unread-ably destructive behind her eyes. The governor begins to explain,
"Everyone we sent in there, it-it's hard to describe." John turns to look at him. "It's like she...
"-recruited them." Mycroft finishes. The screen continues playing and Eurus is still speaking, "Smiling is advertising."
"Enslaved them." The governor corrects.
"She's been capable of that since she was five."
"Smiling is happiness." Eurus continues, John turns to the screen again and places a hand to his ear. He'll be talking to Sherlock. Hopefully warning him - but when does Sherlock do as he's told?
"She's an adult now. I warned you. I ordered you." The governor sighs but smiles almost sheepishly.
"She's clinically unique. We had to try." You shake your head at him, he should have listened to Mycroft.
"At what cost?" Mycroft asks.
"Happiness is a pop song. Sadness is a poem."
"What cost?" Mycroft repeats much quieter. You step closer to him and place my hand on the back of the chair. He turns to the governor, "Tell me the worst thing that has happened."
"She kept suggesting to Doctor Taylor that he should kill his family."
"And?"
"He said it was like an ear-worm, couldn't get her out of his head."
"And?"
"He left."
"And?"
"Killed himself."
"And?"
"His family."
"Well he clearly didn't care about his family." You state. Everyone turns to look at you.
"[Y/N]?!" John says, looking shocked.
"No I'm sorry but Eurus can clearly pick up on people's insecurities and she's choosing to do so in order to see people's reactions and how long they last before they break. Don't you see that she's using you all as her - her experiments!" Everyone is silent and you turn back to the screens, annoyed at them all.
"Are you going to cry?" Eurus asks. Who is she talking to? It must be someone in the building. But who? It could be anyone. I need to narrow it down. Mycroft turns his head to the screen, but he still keeps half an eye on you.
"It's okay if you cry."
"I don't need to cry."
"I can help you cry."
Mycroft stands up and leans on the desk with both hands.
"I warned you explicitly: no-one was to talk to her alone."
"You spoke to her."
"I know what I'm doing!"
"You even brought her a visitor on Christmas Day."
John and you both frown. A visitor?
"I took a calculated risk."
"You gave her a Christmas present. Remember her Christmas present?" Whatever he's talking about isn't making Mycroft happy.
"I am aware of the dangers Eurus poses, and equipped to deal with them."
"What dangers?" John asks him. Mycroft straightens,
"Eurus doesn't just talk to people. She.. reprograms them. Anyone who spends time with her is automatically compromised." John walks across to the glass balcony door and stands outside. You watch the recording of Eurus as she says,
"I'm only trying to help you. We can help each other. Helping someone is the best way you can help yourself."
"I don't trust you." Something's not right about this.
"What was her Christmas present?" You ask quietly. Mycroft purses his lips,
"A violin." A half lie.
"Then who was the visitor?" He sighs. "Mycroft?"
"James Moriarty." His name. That's all it takes. For everything to come back.
"What? How could you-"
"[Y/N] I had to-"
"No. How could you do that? You do realise that this means he could be back? At anytime? If anyone could work out how to fake a bullet through the head it would be her. And it wouldn't exactly be the first time he faked his death. And you just let them conspire together?! Please tell me you know what they spoke about."
"Unsupervised conversation." That's when you feel the tears begin to run down your face.
"When was this?"
"Christmas Day. Five years ago." Five years ago. My first Christmas without him. How could he? With this you walk out the room.
"I need a minute. I'll be outside." It takes you a few minutes before you can turn back to watch the room from outside. Mycroft's raised his voice at the Governor,
"I put my trust in you, my implicit trust. As governor of this institute."
"It's obvious when it all started. Well, she was never the same after that Christmas. It's as if you woke her up." Of course it would of.
"That is entirely beside the point! You had your orders and failed to act on them." You see John walk back into the room and he immediately says,
"Listen to the tape.
"Sorry?"
"Do it now. Listen."
"My sister's methods of..."
"Just listen." They all turn to the screen as Eurus says,
"You have no idea how I could help." Mycroft walks to the desk and picks up a remote control and turns the volume up.
"Bring me your wife. I want to meet her."
"I don't need your help."
"I can fix her for you, and then I'll give you her straight back, good as new. I promise."
"That's all? What you're proposing is not.. it's not right." The man's voice is much clearer and it seems familiar. John turns to look at the governor,
"Everyone who went in there got affected – enslaved, you said." The governor shifts uncomfortably,
"Yes."
"One after the other."
"Yes." Mycroft interrupts
"Doctor Watson, I think we've-"
"Shut up."
"Do you trust your wife?" Wife. She's talking to someone about their wife. Clearly someone with marital problems. You glance down at the governor's tapping fingers. No wedding ring. A clear tan line shows that he has recently worn a ring though, why would he take it off? Unless he enjoyed removing the ring as if that would remove the problems that came with it. That means that's the governor on the recording, and John worked it out before any of us.
"One question. That's your voice, isn't it?" The voices on the screen echo around the room,
"Do you really? Do you trust her?"
"You've got to stop saying these things." John continues,
"If Eurus has enslaved you, then who exactly is in charge of this prison?" Mycroft stares in shock. The governor stands up quickly and reaches into his inside pocket.
"I'm sorry." He holds up a remote device in his hand.
"No, No, No, No." John attempts to stop him.
"Very, very sorry." He repeats, and presses a button on the remote. Immediately sirens sound and armed guards run into the room aiming their guns at them and they raise their hands. The governor is looking much more composed as he buttons his jacket. Glad to see one of us is calm. One of the guards takes a hold of you as the others are taken out of the room.
"Do we struggle?" You ask.
"Yes, most definitely." Mycroft replies. You elbow a guard in the stomach and then slam his head into your knee as he falls. Another guard grabs you by both arms so you drop to the floor and push your feet against his ankles and he collapses on top of you. John's struggling with his guards as well and as you punch one of them a voice blasts out over the speakers,
"Red alert! Red alert! Big bad bouncy red alert! Klingons attacking lower decks! Also, cowboys in black hats, and Darth Vader!" John runs up the stairs, and you head towards Mycroft who stops struggling and stares up at the speaker. You stop as you recognise the voice. James Moriarty. "Don't be alarmed! I'm here now! I'm here now!" John slows down on the landing. "Did you miss me? Did you miss me?" You turn to look at the screens which reveal Jim staring into the camera. "Miss me? Miss me? Miss me? Miss me? Miss me? Miss me?" Miss you? God, yes. As you stare at the screens in disbelief a guard turns his rifle sideways and strikes you firmly over the back of the head. As you fall Jim's voice echoes around your head.